The Visitor
by OracleDru
Summary: This is a bit of a crossover with Star Trek: the Next Generation. Rated T for swearing and sexual references. Spoilers through the 9th season. Final chapter now up!
1. Chapter 1

The Visitor

Disclaimer: I do not own any part of Stargate SG1 or its characters. I do not own the idea of the Q species, that right is owned by the writers of Star Trek: the Next Generation. I do own the character of Nicole, however, please do not use her without my prior permission.

Chapter One

General Hank Landry folded his arms across his chest and glared at the three people seated before him. Lt. Colonel Samantha Carter shifted uncomfortably in her seat and answered her superior's inaudible question, "He said he would be here as soon as he gathered all his supplies."

"Apparently he has a lot of supplies," Lt. Colonel Cameron Mitchell added, a smile tugging at the corner of his lips.

Teal'c's left eyebrow raised as he watched his teammates from across the table. "Daniel Jackson prefers to be thorough," he told the general.

"Yes, that's all well and good, Teal'c, but I would prefer if Dr. Jackson would be prepared before we all sit down. God knows the man is long winded as it is," Landry replied, not bothering to hide the irritation in his voice.

Before anyone else could respond, everyone seated at the table was blinded by a brilliant white light, which was followed by a thud. When the blindness wore off, the general swore loudly and called for security.

Laying on the table, holding her head in her hands and groaning loudly, was a small woman with long, red, curly hair and a backpack strapped to her back. Two airman ran into the room and pointed their guns at her, the clicks causing the young woman's head to snap up in alarm. Her green eyes widened and her breathing became labored.

"Sam . . . am I no longer welcome here?" her shaky voice reached the ears of the blonde haired woman seated nearby.

Sam jumped up, holding her hands out to the airman and said quickly, "It's okay, we know her. Put your weapons away."

"You _know_ her?" Landry asked, his voice indicating disbelief.

"Yes, we met her five years ago. Her name is Nicole. She originally showed up during the Martin Lloyd incident. You must have read about her, sir. She actually used to work here . . . she's the only member of a race of people we know only as 'Q' that we've ever met."

"That's the race that can manipulate time and space with only their minds and forces of will, right?" Landry asked, recalling a file he had read recently.

"Sweet deal," Cameron muttered, his eyes glued to the woman still seated on the table.

Nicole shook her head and slid off the table next to Teal'c. He lowered his head in greeting. She smiled and touched his arm briefly in reply. Then she turned back to the table and said sadly, "Unfortunately, for the next twelve months, I'm human again."

The general shook his head in confusion, closed his eyes for a moment and held up his hands. "Wait a minute, you're human _again_?"

"Four years ago, Nicole petitioned her elders to be transformed into a human. She remained as such until her sister returned her to her previous state," Teal'c informed the general.

The red haired woman smiled nervously, "Thanks, T, I didn't think it could be stated so quickly, but you're good at that, aren't you?" She patted his arm, which elicited a puzzled glance from the big black man.

Landry was still not satisfied. "Okay, I think I understand the general gist of things so far. Now, young lady, why don't you inform me as to why you're here?"

"That may take a while. Suffice to say, I'm on punishment."

"Punishment?" Sam repeated, looking to the woman for an explanation.

Before she could respond, another man entered the room, his arms filled with artifacts, computers, and maps. He raised his head, his eyes fixed on a certain unusual face in the room, and he stopped walking, his eyes wide and a horrified expression painted onto his face. "Nicole?" his voice was barely over a whisper, but everyone heard the raw emotion conveyed in his tone.

Tucking her hair behind one ear, Nicole nodded for a minute and sucked in a deep breath, obviously having trouble choosing words in response. Finally, she opened her mouth and said simply, "Hi, Daniel. How have you been?"

"How have you been? That's it?" He replied harshly, carefully placing the contents of his arms onto the table. "It's been two years and all you can say is 'how have you been'?"

The young woman exhaled slowly, her green eyes darting from one face to the next, finally coming to rest on a face she didn't recognize: Cameron's. "Hey, who's he? In fact, who's _he_?" she asked, pointing to Landry. "And where's Jack?"

Her gaze switched to Sam, who recognized the attempt to change the topic and responded quickly, "Nicole, this is General Landry and Lt. Colonel Mitchell. General O'Neill no longer works at the SGC."

"Cameron," the new leader of SG1 corrected, his eyes never leaving the face of the red head.

This elicited a small smile from her, and she nodded before directing her attention back to Sam. "Jack no longer works here?"

"As enlightening as this is, I do believe we have a briefing to get started," Landry interrupted before Sam could respond. "Colonel Carter, I assume you have already read Dr. Jackson's report?"

"Yes, sir."

"Then would you please escort our guest to the infirmary where I'm sure Dr. Lam would love to take a look at her?"

"Certainly, sir."

"Dr. Lam? Where's Janet?" Nicole asked, the moment the words were out of her mouth, it was apparent she regretted them. Suddenly finding her shoes very interesting, she said softly, "Sorry, I forgot."

"Forgot? How did you know to begin with?" Daniel asked, his blue eyes flashing with anger.

"I check up on you guys from time to time," was the soft response.

The archeologist's eyes found the blonde woman in the room, who quickly stood up and motioned for Nicole to follow. It was enough to confirm to the man that Sam had been in contact with the red headed woman, the source of the "checking up from time to time."

In the hallway, Nicole whispered another soft apology, her eyes not leaving her shoes. Sam shrugged her shoulders. "I suppose it would have come out eventually," she replied. "Don't be sorry. I'm the one who should have told him that his ex-girlfriend was visiting me once a year."

"Yeah, I guess. But I'm the one who should have paid him a visit and told him what happened between us when he was ascended."

"But you said he asked you not to."

"And then he doesn't remember saying that – limited memories from that time and all that."

Sam nodded, her mind sorting out the details she knew. After a moment of silence she asked, "So why are you here?"

This caused Nicole to crack another smile, her eyes holding a faraway look as she replied, "Oh, I broke the rules again and got caught this time."

"What'd you do?"

"Not much . . . I just made sure the orphans on P3X-242 had enough food to eat for the next month."

Blonde eyebrows creased, blue eyes met green ones in confusion. "P3X-242? I thought that planet didn't have a breathable atmosphere."

"Oh, I forgot that part."

Blue eyes widened as fast as the unbelieving smile. "You made the atmosphere breathable?" "Nicole only shrugged and smiled in response. Sam shook her head. "And you wonder why you got caught?"

"Wonder at getting caught? No. Wonder at my punishment? A little."

"What is your punishment?"

"I'm to remain here for the next twelve months, mortal and, well, powerless."

"Why here?"

"That was my choice."

Sam nodded as they stepped into the infirmary and were met by Dr. Carolyn Lam. "This must be our mystery guest."

Both women nodded. Having delivered the patient, Sam turned to go before she was stopped by Nicole's voice, "I'm going to need a place to stay. I'm thinking my former living arrangements won't be available anymore."

At this, the blonde laughed a little and nodded. "You can stay with me – but you need to pay rent. And if Cassie comes home for the weekend, you sleep on the couch."

Nicole nodded. "Fair enough. Only one other thing to ask then."

"What?"

"Can I get my old job back?"

"I'll certainly try."


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter Two

The next day, the red haired woman was clad in a blue work suit and lying flat on her back underneath the newest state of the art aircraft the United States Air Force had to offer. Muttering something, she pulled another tool from the box beside her and brought it up to the machine.

"You know that's tampering with government property and punishable by many months in prison," a voice reached her ears that she didn't quite recognize but knew she'd heard before. Pushing herself out from under the vehicle, she was met by a sparkling smile and blue eyes, belonging to a face she could definitely place. "Hi," he greeted her.

"Cameron, right?" she asked as she stood up and wiped her greasy hands on her pants. "To what do I owe the pleasure?"

He shrugged. "Just thought I'd come meet you personally. Yesterday was a zoo in the briefing room."

She nodded and slipped the wrench she had been using into a pocket. "Uh-huh. So you're not my new supervisor?"

"Supervisor? No, that would be the man over there." Cameron pointed toward a man on the other side of the hanger bay, walking away from them with a clipboard securely in his hands. "And he's not just your supervisor, but the supervisor to the entire engineering crew."

Nicole crossed her arms across her chest. "Thanks, genius. I think you know what I meant, though."

"Maybe." He smiled again, throwing up his hands. "Fine, don't trust me, but I wasn't sent up here to keep an eye on you if that's what you think." She rolled her eyes but remained silent. "So how are you finding your job?"

"Same as last time I did it."

"I didn't know you the last time you did it."

"I like it, thanks."

"Well, that's good. I hear you have other experience in engineering, but the files aren't too specific when it comes to you or your expertise."

Nicole laughed and replied, "That's because I'm a little complicated." She glanced toward the supervisor, who was heading in their direction. "Look, can I get back to work now?"

"Sure." She nodded curtly and resumed her previous position under the airplane. Instead of leaving as she had expected, the colonel squatted down next to her and continued their conversation, "So why are you a little complicated?"

The woman chuckled to herself as she pulled the tool back out of her pocket and resumed her work. "You don't give up easily, do you?"

This remark was rewarded by a dazzling smile on his part, dimples and all. "Nope."

She cocked her head slightly to look at him again. "Wait a minute. Mitchell . . . you wouldn't be that pilot that saved SG1's ass back in the Anubis battle, would you?"

"The one and the same."

"Wow, it was said you wouldn't walk again."

"Remember that thing you said about me not giving up easily?"

She smiled and nodded. "I'm impressed – and _that's_ not easy."

"So are you going to answer my question?"

Sorting through the toolbox, she chose another tool and went back to work. "What question was that?"

Cameron snorted and shook his head, ready to pull the woman out from under the plane and strangle her, but something made him laugh instead. There was something about this woman that made him a little off balance. He found himself liking her off beat sense of humor and when she evaded his questions, it didn't frustrate him as he thought it should. Instead he found himself even more intrigued by the strange visitor.

"Why are you a little complicated?"

"For one, I think it would be a little hard for your small mind to comprehend my species."

"Small?"

"Don't be offended. I was born human, I have nothing but respect for your race."

"Born human, how does that work?"

"Exactly."

"But you're human now, right?"

"Yeah, so you see the dilemma of trying me trying to explain anything to you with my limited understanding in this state."

He shook his head, a little more confused than he'd like to admit. "Okay, so are you saying the files on you aren't very specific because not even you can completely explain about you?"

"Yeah, that about sums it up." She smiled at the baffled expression his face had contorted. "Of course, I am also really smart for a human . . . they didn't tell you how old I am, did they?"

"No, I think I missed that in the files."

"That's because it's not in there. It's a little hard to understand."

"What do you mean?"

"I'm one hundred and twenty-four years old – in your human years."

"What? No, that's impossible."

"Not impossible. Just because I haven't aged physically doesn't mean I haven't aged mentally." Cameron lowered his head into his hands, already feeling a headache coming on. She laughed in response and continued, "I told you it was complicated."

"Wait a minute, if you're a hundred twenty-four, then you were born in –"

"2463."

"_What?"_

This time her laughter echoed off the walls of the hollow aircraft hanger, which caused quite a few workers to glance their way before continuing their own work. "What part 'able to manipulate time and space with only their minds and forces of their will' didn't you understand?"

"The part where you're super old and haven't even been born yet."

Nicole rolled her eyes. "Anyway, that's where my experience with engineering comes in – only it was twenty-fourth century engineering. General Hammond jumped on that experience, that's how I got this job before."

"No doubt that's why General Landry jumped on it, too."

"Yeah," she replied in a distracted tone of voice, "So why are you trying to keep me from my work?"

"I'm not keeping you from your work. I can see you doing your work right in front of me."

"Yes, but my attention is split. I'd work faster if you weren't yammering on over there."

"Point taken." Cameron stood to go. "Nice talking with you. Maybe we can do it again sometime."

"Yeah, I'd like that," Nicole answered, smiling a little to herself.

Sam ran her fingers through her hair and sighed loudly to herself. Picking up her coffee, she raised it to her lips without breaking eye contact with the glowing computer screen before her.

Just then, a soft knock on her door frame caused her concentration to break. Finally moving away from the screen, she looked up to see the familiar and comforting face of her friend, Daniel Jackson, staring back at her. "Busy?" he asked, his tone making it clear he didn't care what the answer would be.

She shook her head. "Not really. Come on in." She pushed a box out off of the stool next to her, making room for him to sit.

"Still haven't quite moved in yet, huh?"

"Nope. Been a little busy, what with former g'ould system lords on earth and the Ori practically at our doorstep. What's on your mind?"

"You have to ask?"

Sam sighed again and closed her laptop. Turning to her friend, her expression one of remorse and regret, she replied slowly, "I'm sorry for not telling your before about Nicole. I just thought that if you didn't know, somehow it might be better."

He shook his head and waved off the apology. "No, you were right not to tell me. I was just taken off-guard, that's all."

"If you're not upset, then why are you here?"

Daniel took off his glasses and rubbed the bridge of his nose. When he replaced them, he explained, "I'm trying to understand what's going on here. Why is she back?"

"Apparently she broke some more rules and this is her punishment."

"Sending her here? How's that?"

Sam shrugged. "She's human again, for one."

"Oh, and not by choice this time?"

"No. For twelve months she has to live like us again."

"And this is punishment to her?"

Again his response was a shrug. "According to the elders."

Daniel nodded, leaning against the desk and letting his head slip into his hand supported by his elbow. For a few minutes, neither one spoke, they just sat there staring at the walls. Finally, the archeologist broke the silence, "I'm over her, you know."

Sam's eyebrows raised. "Really?"

"Doesn't mean I forgive her."

"Daniel, there really isn't anything to forgive. I've told you before. She was abiding by _your_ wishes."

"Wishes I don't remember."

"Doesn't matter. I would have done the same thing."

"You weren't there."

"No, I wasn't. So maybe I shouldn't be in the middle of it."

A little taken aback, he pulled back, his appalled staring congruent with his expression. Finally, he shook his head and jumped off the stool. "I wasn't the one who put you in the middle of it."

"Daniel," Sam started, reaching out for him.

Backing away from her touch, he shook his head and responded, "It's okay, Sam. I'm not angry with you." She let her arm fall and nodded. "I just want to be alone now, okay?" Nodding, she watched as he left the room.

There was no blue jell-o in the commissary. Samantha Carter, brilliant mind that she was, could not wrap her mind around the thought of no blue jell-o for lunch. However, seeing no way around the situation, the Air Force Lt. Colonel settled with red and turned to find a seat in the already crowded room.

As her eyes scanned the faces, her gaze came to rest on two faces she quite well at a table not too far from her position. Surprised, she made her way to the table where a man and a woman sat, the two clearly in the middle of a conversation, and the woman was laughing quite hard at something the man had just said.

"Hi," Sam greeted the two when she reached the table, not quite sure what their response would be.

They both smiled wider and Cameron pulled out the chair next to him. "Sam! Join us!" he invited. Sam sat down, her eyes glued on the red haired woman across the table. "I was just telling Nicole about some of the crazy things my grandmother did when I was going up. Turns out her parents were Christians, too."

"Really?" Sam asked, genuinely curious. "Christianity is still around in the twenty-fourth century?" she probed, intentionally asking the question to gauge her team leader's response.

Again catching her off-guard, Cameron didn't seem surprised, as if he already knew that particular fact of Nicole's background. "Yeah, it's still around, but not quite as prevalent as it is today," Nicole answered, poking her own jell-o with a spoon. "You actually eat this stuff?" she asked cautiously. Even after spending a year and a half on Earth previously, she had never gotten used to the idea of gelatinous food.

Sam laughed and nodded. "It's better when it's blue," she replied as she ate a spoonful of her own. "So I see you two are getting to know each other," she commented.

Nicole shrugged and picked up her sandwich instead of trying the jell-o. "He got me to take some jell-o, if that's what you mean."

"You said you were going to try it!" Cameron insisted.

She scowled in response. "I said I'd _think_ about trying it. Nothing more."

"You two seem to be getting along quite well," Sam pointed out before she spooned more jell-o into her mouth.

"You sound surprised," Nicole replied, putting down the sandwich. "I don't see why. Cameron's a nice guy, stubbornness aside."

"Hey!" the man objected. "I happen to think stubbornness is a good quality in a person."

The red head shook her head. "Yeah, but so is knowing when to quit."

"I know when to quit."

"Hardly."

"Do you two want to be alone? I could find another table," Sam asked, a smile playing at her lips.

"No," Nicole replied quickly. "I was leaving anyway. Have to get back to work." Picking up her tray, she stood to go. "Thanks for lunch, Cameron. See you later, Sam."

After she had left the room, Cameron noticed something. "She barely touched her food."

Sam nodded and took another bite of her lunch. "It'll take her a while to get used to eating for nourishment again. After that, you won't be able to get her to stop eating."

"High metabolism, huh?"

The blonde blew out her breath in a huff of jealousy. "Yeah." Quickly changing the subject, Sam cocked her head in the direction of her team leader. "So, anything you'd care to tell me?"

"What do you mean?" Cameron asked, quickly shoving a forkful of food into his own mouth, hoping that would discourage the woman from asking any more questions.

Unfortunately that strategy failed him. "About a certain red haired, formerly powerful being who just left the room?"

"Why would you ask that?"

Sam shrugged and took another bite herself. "It just seemed like there's more to this new friendship than meets the eye."

Cameron shook his head. "I'm really not sure what you're talking about."

"Uh-huh, sure you don't," she replied sarcastically, purposely not looking at him when she said it.

They sat in silence for a few minutes, the only sound the crunching of their food as they chewed. Finally he could stand it no longer. Putting his fork down, he turned to her and asked resignedly, "Okay, what do you know?"

"About?" she asked, pretending she didn't know what he was talking about.

"About Nicole. Tell me everything you know."

Placing down her spoon, she turned in her own chair to face him and replied in a very serious tone, "Why?"

"You really want me to say it?" She nodded. "Fine. I like her. I would like to get to know her better, maybe ask her out on a date, then go from there."

"No," Sam replied, turning back to her food.

"No? Why not?"

"I'm not going to help you date Daniel's ex-girlfriend."

"Daniel's ex-girlfriend?" Cameron repeated, obviously not expecting this response.

Sam nodded and asked, "Don't tell me you missed the show in the briefing room yesterday."

"You mean how Daniel responded to seeing her? Yeah, I caught that, but I didn't think . . . I didn't guess _that_."

"Apparently."

"You think he'd kill me if I tried to date her?"

She shrugged. "You never can tell with Daniel, but if I were you, I'd talk to Daniel before I talked to Nicole."


	3. Chapter 3

Chapter Three

The TV flipped through the channels aimlessly as if the remote control was broken, but Samantha Carter knew better. Ever since Nicole had found the remote to the damn television set, it never seemed to stay on one channel for long. The USAF Colonel speculated the flashing colors must remind the woman of her "flashing" to different places, but it didn't change the fact that it annoyed the hell out of Sam.

"Nicole, would you please pick a channel?" She finally relented to the gritting of her own teeth and requested a reprieve. Without a response, the red haired woman dropped the remote control next to her on the couch, finally allowing the normal television sounds to begin and the picture to remain still for a moment. "Thank you."

There was a nod in response, but no audible acknowledgement. Sam knew from experience that this was Nicole's way of expressing boredom. Well, for someone who could usually travel the cosmos at will, it was impressive the woman didn't get bored more often. Nicole huffed, blowing her hair away from her face and asked quietly, "When's Jack going to get here?" for about the fifth time in the past hour.

Sam shrugged and reached for the remote. "I don't have a different answer than I did ten minutes ago. Why do you care so much?"

Nicole smiled and reached for a bottle of water next to her. Taking a sip, she replied gleefully, "Because I got a new toy I want him to try out."

"New toy? What kind of toy?"

"A new kind of laser tag . . . I invited Cameron over, and I thought we'd all try it out. What do you think?"

"And you waited until now to ask me this because?"

The woman shrugged in response. "Scatter brained?"

Sam smiled knowingly and sat back in her armchair slowly. "You wanted to wait until Jack got here so he would convince me to play . . . didn't you?" Nicole tried to ignore the question by jumping up and opening the refrigerator door. "I know you're not hungry. You just ate an hour ago, and you're still not used to food yet."

Just then the door opened, saving Nicole from answering the woman's question. "Honey, I'm home!" a man's voice called out, causing both women to smile and laugh.

"We're in here," Sam answered and stood up to greet her boyfriend. When he entered the room, she leaned over and kissed him briefly. "Mmm, you know I don't see you around much these days."

"But what is much?" He replied with a smile. "I'm here as often as I can slip away from Washington. Damn bureaucrats. Sometimes I want to retire again."

The red head shook her curls and stepped into a hug from the Air Force general. She pulled her face into a teasing smile and asked in a sickeningly sweet childlike voice, "But Daddy, if you did that, where would we get the money to buy our food?"

"As if you eat anyway," Sam retorted.

Jack shook his head slowly and let his briefcase drop from his arm onto the floor. Slipping his arm around his girlfriend, the two of them made their way to the couch and settled onto it together. Nicole made her way to the freezer and pulled out a pint of ice cream.

"Samantha dear, maybe I'm losing my mind, but I don't remember traveling to the twenty-fourth century and having a daughter just so she could come back a hundred and twenty-four years later to torture us. Do you?" Jack asked, his eyes watching as the woman in the kitchen grabbed a spoon and pulled off the ice cream lid.

Sam giggled and snuggled deeper into his embrace. "Not yet," she replied coyly. Jack groaned and leaned down to kiss her again.

"Very funny, guys," Nicole stuck out her tongue and began to eat the ice cream. "And see, I eat."

"Ice cream isn't exactly what I had in mind," the blonde replied, her head resting against her boyfriend's shoulder.

Again, before Nicole could even attempt to respond, there was the ring of the doorbell, expertly interrupting any rebuttal she may have had in mind. All thought of a reply flew rapidly from her as her face split into a huge grin, and she raced for the door, forgetting the ice cream on the counter as she went.

Jack's eyebrows arched in surprise. "Expecting a man, is she?"

Another giggle was heard from the woman in his arms. She nodded and replied, "Yes, a man, but no, not what you think."

"It's not Daniel, is it?"

"Holy Hannah, no," Sam quickly replied. "I wouldn't want to touch that with a twenty foot pole. It's Cameron."

Surprise flitted across the man's face beside her. "Mitchell?"

"Uh-huh," she studied his reaction and felt a tug on the corners of her lips. "But as I said before, not what you think. They're just friends for now."

"For now?"

"Yeah, well, you didn't hear it from me, but he wants something more."

"What _don't_ I hear from you?"

This was rewarded with a smack in the arm. "You didn't hear it at all."

He rewarded her with a cock-eyed grin. She rolled her eyes and pushed herself off the couch. "Hey," he protested, "I was comfortable."

"I'll bet you were," she winked in his direction. "But we should go play chaperone."

"But I don't want to."

"There's laser tag involved – some new toy Nicole got."

This got Jack on his feet right away. "We get to play in the woods?" he asked, his grin and eyes reflecting the excited tone that laced his voice.

"You're right, scratch the chaperone idea."

An hour later, the two of them had their backs pinned against a tree, laser guns in hand, listening intently. Sam brushed a stray golden lock of hair back under her black cap, once again concealing the brilliant color from any possible attack. Breathing out slowly, she sank to the ground and shook her head. "Jack, it's been a while. Where could they be?"

He sank down beside her, shaking his own head in frustration. "I don't know, but I'm getting too old for this." He pulled a water bottle out from his vest and drank from it before offering it to her. She did the same and passed it back. "These teams were unevenly chosen. They're both young, whereas we've been around a little longer."

"Hey!"

Jack nearly choked on the air, trying to swallow his words. "I just meant they're younger than us . . . you're still young and beautiful. I'm the old man here. Still trying to figure out why you'd want _me_."

"Nice try, buddy . . . and only one of them is younger than us."

"Yeah, older in mind, but she still has that young body."

"Oh really?" Sam asked, her eyebrows raised and her gun pointing in his direction. "Choose your words carefully, General."

"Not that I'm looking! Come on, baby, you know you're the only woman I care to look at like that."

"Baby?"

He shifted uncomfortably and tried again, "Um . . . sweetheart?"

"Ugh. No pet names, please."

"Sam."

"Better." Leaning over, she kissed him softly before pushing her gun into his empty hand. "Now can we get out of here please? I'd really like to sleep sometime tonight."

"You're planning on sleeping tonight?" Jack asked, a mock expression of hurt coming over his features.

Sam smiled devilishly. "At some point."

The pair pushed off from the tree and began to walk back toward her house. Just when they had reached the backyard, there was some rummaging in the bushes near her back porch. Jack quickly pulled Sam back into the trees, an instinctive reaction.

As they watched, Nicole and Cameron came stumbling out of the bushes, the red head tripping on a root and going spiraling to the ground. "But you wouldn't shoot your own team member!" she screamed, a smile still plastered her face despite the fall.

Flipping onto her back, she was caught off-guard when the man with her caught the same root and went tumbling right on top of her, his gun flying out of his hand. "Damn root," he muttered, suddenly finding himself gazing down into the green eyes and triumphant smile of the red haired woman below him.

"I think you have lost your weapon, sir," she whispered victoriously. "Does that mean I win?" She received no response, but he continued to stare down at her, still breathing heavily from their run through the forest. Her smiled soon disappeared, replaced by a confused expression and the creasing of her eyebrows. "Cameron?"

Without a word, he leaned down and covered her lips with his own. Her eyes widened, her breath caught in her throat, and her mind raced for the first second. Then her eyes closed, she pulled in some air through her nose and kissed him back. She even deepened the kiss by moving closer and wrapping her arms around his neck.

"What the hell is he doing?" Sam hissed through clenched teeth, an obvious sign of her anger and disapproval.

"What? You knew how he feels about her," Jack replied, really not understanding why his girlfriend was so upset.

"Yeah, but I told him he should probably talk to Daniel before he talked to Nicole."

"They're not talking," Jack pointed out, a comment that was rewarded with a dirty look. "Sam, I doubt he planned to do that."

"Oh no? Look at them, they're practically making out in my backyard! _We_ didn't even kiss that much for our first kiss, and we had _eight years_ of pent up sexual tension to fuel it."

"I seem to remember our first kiss being very passionate," Jack replied, his eyes holding a faraway look.

Sam smirked and pulled at her shirt self-consciously. "I don't really remember that one too well."

"Pity."

Meanwhile, the new leader of SG1 finally pulled away from the woman below him and sat upright next to her. Pulling herself into a sitting position, Nicole was now very much aware of how wet the grass had been, her entire back was now soaking through the thin laser tag vest to her shirt. Avoiding the man's gaze, she breathed in and started slowly, "Cameron, I don't know if this is such a good idea."

"What isn't a good idea?"

"Us."

He nodded, carefully watching her guarded expression, trying to catch any glimpse of emotion. "Why not?"

"I don't do things half-assed."

"Neither do I."

"I've only been in one other relationship – and that lasted for two and a half years."

"With Dr. Jackson."

She nodded. "So, if I get into another relationship, it won't just be for a few months. It'll be one of those relationships I think can last for a long, long time."

"I understand that. But why don't you think we could possibly last?"

"For one thing, we've only known each other a week. You're a great guy, but I don't know that much about you."

"We can get to know each other better."

She sighed and stood up, turning to face him finally. "I'm leaving in less than a year."

"Leaving?"

"Yeah, you know, going home? I'm certainly not going to stick around here once I become a Q again."

"You asked to become human before, why couldn't you ask to stay human now?"

She laughed a cruel laugh and shook her head. "What makes you think I want to be human? I happen to like having almost unlimited power."

He shrugged and stood up himself. "I just thought that you wanted it before, maybe you'd want it again."

"Haven't you guessed why I asked to be human before?" She crossed her arms over her chest and waited for his response. All he was able to manage was a weak shake of his head. "I wanted to stay with Daniel. You can't possibly think that after a week I would even consider staying to be with you."

Smiling broadly, he tried to joke. "Why not?" She rolled her eyes and began to walk back toward the house. Shaking his head violently, he ran in front of her and stopped, causing her to halt her escape attempt. "Okay, sorry, not a teasing moment. That's something I've got to learn with you."

"You've got a _lot_ to learn about me."

"So I'll learn. Come on, Nicole, we're great friends, I'm sure we could be an even better couple."

Sighing, she pulled at a curl, considering what this man offered her. Pushing a wave of wet curls over her shoulder, she finally consented, "Okay, here's the deal. We're friends, right?"

"Absolutely."

"Okay, so we're friends, and you've got eleven months to prove to me why you think we should be more. I'm not saying there's even the remote possibility I'll refuse to be changed back, but there is the possibility of staying with a human even when I'm a Q. So friends, maybe dating in later months, then we'll consider relationship when the time comes. Sound like something you can do?"

He burst into the biggest smile she'd ever seen and nodded his head furiously. "I think it is."

"Good. Now you talk to Daniel."

The smile faded. "Why?"

"Because he won't talk to me yet, and I don't want it to be weird between you and him at work."

He watched as she walked into the house, not aware of the two people walking up behind him. He swore softly and muttered to himself, "And I just got the band back together."


	4. Chapter 4

Chapter Four

"Jackson," a voice called from the doorway leading to Daniel's office. The archeologist glanced up from an artifact he was trying to decipher into the smiling face of his team leader, Cameron Mitchell. "Got a minute?"

Daniel shrugged and turned back to his work before responding, "Sure, what's on your mind?"

Cameron walked slowly into the room, swinging his arms and banging his fists together softly and silently in an attempt to hide his nervousness. Stopping beside Daniel and leaning on the table next to the object the doctor of archeology was studying, the younger man asked politely, "So what are you working on?"

"It's an artifact that SG8 brought back from P4X-797. It's really quite fascinating. You see the writing here? That looks like ancient, but the writing over here seems to be more similar to. . ." Daniel trailed off when he turned to Cameron and noticed the look of confusion the military man was sending him. "You don't really care, do you?"

"Nope, sorry, Jackson, but this kind of thing really isn't my cup of tea. But you will tell me if it can send us on another adventure, right?"

Daniel smiled and nodded. "Of course. So what can I help you with?"

Cameron looked away, suddenly becoming very interested in another artifact on Daniel's table, picking it up and turning it in his hands. Daniel lost his smile and reached over, gently pulling the object from Cameron's hands. "I don't want to mess with that, do I?" The Air Force colonel asked, stuffing his hands in his pockets.

"No, you don't," Daniel replied as he cautiously set the artifact down on the other side of the table. "Why don't you just tell me what's on your mind?"

Running a hand through his short hair, Cameron took a deep breath and replied, "Okay, so I need to ask you something. And I want you to promise that no matter how upset you get, you won't leave SG1."

"Why would I do that?"

"Because apparently I've been a bad friend."

Curious, Daniel's attention was now completely on Cameron. The older man folded his arms across his chest and said carefully, "Mitchell, I highly doubt there's anything you could have done that would classify you as a bad friend. I mean, we barely know each other. What could you have possibly –"

"I kissed Nicole," Cameron said quickly and took a step back, away from a swing he presumed was coming.

If the young colonel had known the archeologist better, he would have known it wasn't necessary to move away. Daniel turned back to his table and pushed the artifact away from him, sensing this conversation was going to require all of his attention. "That I was not expecting," he told the nervous man who was not standing at the edge of the table. "But you haven't been a bad friend, Mitchell. She and I are no longer together."

"Yeah, but isn't it in the friend rulebook that it's not right to date a buddy's ex unless he says it's okay? And besides, judging from what I saw in the briefing room and what little I've heard from Sam, there are still issues between you and Nicole."

"Issues, maybe. Feelings, not really." Daniel raised his head and locked eyes with his team leader. "And what did Sam say to you?"

"Not much at all," Cameron responded, still feeling as if he should run, but knew he needed to stay here and finish what he had started. "So are you okay with this? Because she and I are just friends. So . . . do I have to apologize to you and forget the whole thing ever happened? Or can I still keep hope that maybe she and I can be something more in the future?"

"You can do what you want, Mitchell, you're a grown man."

Cameron stepped closer, leaning on the table a little, and said in a hushed tone, "But I want to know that you're okay with me pursuing your ex-girlfriend. Because if you're not, I'll back off. Your friendship is more important to me – and so is our team."

Daniel smiled and shook his head. "No, I'm okay with whatever you do. It's been two years, I'm over her."

"So can I ask why you're still mad at her?"

"It's complicated."

"Why do I always get that response? Do all of you think that I'm stupid or something? I mean, I know I'm not as smart as you or Sam, but I don't think I deserve to be treated as if I can't understand things."

Shaking his head and laughing a little, Daniel replied, "No, we don't think you're stupid. When you get that answer, take it as another way of saying we don't want to talk about it."

"Oh. So I guess I'll just go then. Thanks for your time."

Just as Cameron had reached the door frame, Daniel called out to him and asked, "Do you remember I said you could call me Daniel?"

Cameron turned and smiled. "And I told you to call me Cameron. Seems to me like we both have to have our memory or our hearing checked."

Nicole was working on another aircraft when someone slid up beside her using the same kind of wheeled contraption she was using to lay upon. Turning her head slightly, she was greeted by the bright white of Cameron's teeth flashing at her. She smiled without showing her own and shook her head quietly. "Well, good morning to you, too," she greeted him as she once again focused on her work.

"So I just talked to Daniel."

"Oh yeah?" She asked, pulling at a piece of wiring and dodging a spark. "What did he say?"

"He said he's fine with whatever you and I decide to do."

She nodded, grasping the wire and trying to fuse it into the right place. "I suspected as much. It's good that you talked with him, though. Better than him finding out any other way, that's for sure." She turned to Cameron finally, taking a short break from her work. "You told him about Friday night?"

He nodded and replied, "Yeah, he was surprised, but didn't seem upset."

"Well, that's good." She turned back to the plane. "But don't expect it to happen again any time soon, flyboy."

He smiled, trying to feign hurt in the small, darkened space. "You wound me, missy. Was it that bad?"

At this, the woman couldn't help but smile. She shook her head and pushed his wheeled contraption away from her. "Get out," she said, but her voice wasn't harsh at all, more playful than anything else.

"Okay, okay," he replied. "Are we still on for lunch?"


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter Five

Nicole sat on the cold floor of the starship's deck, the recently repaired conduit forgotten as she gazed out the window at the streaking stars beyond. Rubbing thoughtlessly at a spot of grease on her cheek, she sighed and placed a hand on the cold glass separating her from the vacuum of space beyond. Feeling the chill traveling up her arm, she shivered, savoring the feeling for a moment before removing her hand and watching the foggy handprint disappear before her.

"Hey curly-sue, how long does it take you fix one broken conduit?" a voice reached her ears, causing her to groan and turn around to face the owner. "Dad wants to see you," the teenaged boy with messy brown hair and a lopsided grin told her.

She nodded, picking up her toolkit and sliding out of the repair tube with a twinge of remorse, knowing she shouldn't have been wasting time when there was work to do. "Any idea what he wants, Corin?" she asked as she feel into step beside her brother.

"Well, I know he wants to talk about dinner."

"Ugh. Just because Teeny and I are girls doesn't mean we enjoy cooking."

Corin shrugged. "He just wants some help, I think. We're all helping out. It's hard without Mom, you know."

"You're not the only one who lost her."

"Neither are you."

Whatever smart comment she had in return was interrupted by the sudden appearance of their father beside them. "There you two are. I've been looking all over the ship for you." They nodded, knowing their conversation was over at this point. "I've invited the Laquinze family to dinner tonight."

Nicole groaned at the news, but Corin looked positively elated at the news. "But Dad, it's bad enough we have to cook for our family, but now we have to cook for them, too?"

He nodded, turning a disapproving look on his daughter. "Nicole, they don't have anyone to celebrate Thanksgiving with. I thought since we are traveling the same route, we may as well spend the holiday together."

"I can't believe we still celebrate this stupid holiday anyway," the redhead muttered under her breath.

"And who's the adult here?" Her family asked in a scolding tone.

"You are," his daughter replied in a whisper.

Corin clapped a hand on his father's shoulder. It was amazing how much the teenager had grown in the past year. He was only three years older than Nicole, but his growth spurt had made him look more like early twenties than the sixteen years he actually was. "I think it's a great idea," he told his father with a genuine look of happiness on his face.

Nicole rolled her eyes as she watched her father and brother head off down the hallway, she herself ducking into her younger sister's room while they weren't looking. Flopping onto the bed, she muttered to herself, "Suck-up."

"Who's a suck-up?" The small eleven-year-old with short blonde hair asked as she poked an earring into her left ear.

Nicole smiled at Athena, the "baby" of the Leah family. "Our big brother," the redhead replied as she tucked her hands behind her head and stared at the ceiling. "He told Dad he's happy to have the Laquinze family for dinner when I know he's just saying it to get into Dad's good graces."

Teeny shook her head, her hair flying about. "No, he's not. He has a crush on Ariana." Ariana was the only daughter the Laquinze couple had. She was seventeen years old with long blonde hair and blue eyes. Nicole couldn't believe she hadn't realized her older brother's crush before; it was so apparent to her now as she thought of the way he had acted around her.

"This is going to be a long night," Nicole told her sister before jumping off the bed and dragging her sister out of the room so that they could help prepare for dinner.

If only Nicole had realized the truth in her statement when she had said it. That night, their ship was attacked by a renegade group, one that attacked vessels in deep space and stripped them of all their technology. Once they had taken what they wanted, this group of marauders killed the adults and left the four children for dead on the drifting ships.

"Nicci, what are we going to do?" A scared Teeny asked her older sister. Nicole shook her head, her green eyes wide and terrified as she looked to her older brother.

He turned away, moving closer to Ariana and wrapping his arms around the girl. "We're going to get through this," he told the three girls softly.

Nicole could feel her heart pounding as she shot up, her breath coming in short gasps. Bringing her hands up to her hair, she threaded her fingers through the thick curls, feeling the perspiration that clung to the strands. She tried to control her breathing, finally being able to bring it under control. Turning to look at the neon green light of the small travel clock, she groaned when she saw the time: 3:32 AM.

Slipping off the sofa, she pulled a bathrobe over her for warmth and crossed into the kitchen to brew herself a cup of coffee, knowing she wouldn't get any more sleep that night. Every time she closed her eyes, she saw the terrible images of her father and Ariana's parents being murdered before her. She didn't need to dream about that day in order to remember it.

Of course, she also knew how the story ended. A man showed up on the ship in a blinding flash of light, telling the children his name was Q, and he could help them. He had been passing by, noticed their predicament, and took pity on them. He "adopted" them that very minute, making them "Qs" like him. But as much as she liked the ending of the story, the beginning was far too painful to think about.

As she poured her coffee and reached for cream and sugar, her mind traveled to the events that were scheduled for the day – the day of Thanksgiving. She had asked Sam last week if they could host the festivities here. It had seemed like a good idea at the time, since it was usually held at Daniel's apartment, and Nicole had no interest in seeing the inside of it anytime soon. She didn't think about just opting out of the day all together. Considering her excuse, she would probably get away with it. But no one knew her story, not even Daniel.

And no one suspected a thing, not even Sam or Jack, as the three of them spent the day cooking and having small food fights in the kitchen. Cassie was still asleep upstairs, but after she had arrived late last night and crashed into her bed, no one was going to try to wake the college student to help with the preparations.

The guests were told to show up anywhere between 3 and 4 pm, at which time everything was cooking and the cooks were taking a small break before completing their job. Sam and Jack sat on the couch sipping their beers and watching the football game. Cassie had found her way downstairs about an hour before, but was now upstairs showering and putting on clothes for the day before the guest arrived. Nicole took the chance to escape onto the back porch.

No sooner had she settled onto one of the benches did a bright light appear before her, leaving in its wake a tall beautiful women with long blonde hair and green eyes. "Hi, Teeny," Nicole greeted her younger sister.

"Hey, mopey," Teeny replied and perched herself onto the railing of the deck. "What's with the long face?"

"It's Thanksgiving."

"Ah. So tell me something: if you hate Thanksgiving so much, why are you celebrating it?"

Nicole shrugged. "It's a long story that I'd rather not get into right now."

"Uh-huh. So do your friends know you hate it?"

"No, and I'm not going to tell them."

Teeny rolled her eyes and replied, "I don't get it. Why not?"

"Because I don't want to ruin it for them. Just because I can't appreciate it doesn't mean they can't."

"Still don't get it."

Nicole sighed and replied harshly, "Of course you can't. It's doing something nice for someone else and that's something you'll never understand."

Teeny's eyes widened, her expression betraying the pain her sister's comment had inflicted. "That's not true! I do nice things for you all the time."

"Yeah, just for me. Do you realize I'm the only person in the entire universe that you ever help? There are a lot of needy people out there, Teens. Why do you only use your power to help me?"

"We're not supposed to use our powers to help people, Nicci. That's your thing, not mine."

"I don't care how we're _supposed_ to use our powers. It's nice to do things for others."

At that moment, Cameron opened the door, a look of surprise coming over him as he spotted the two women. It was obvious he was only expecting to see one. At the sight of a man, Teeny hopped off the balcony and smoothed her short skirt over her legs, a look of interest falling over her. "Who's this, Nicci?" she asked, practically drooling over the Air Force colonel.

Feeling suddenly possessive, Nicole jumped up quickly and moved to stand next to Cameron, replying shortly, "Don't even think about it, Teeny."

Confused, Cameron looked from one woman to the other curiously. "Um, Sam said you'd be out here and um, she wanted me to tell you she needs you in the house . . . am I interrupting something?"

"No," Teeny replied at the same time as Nicole said, "Yes."

Nicole smiled sweetly at the man and told him, "Cameron, this is my sister, Teeny. Why don't you go back inside and tell Sam I'll be right there?" He nodded and darted back into the house, obviously wanting to get away from the sibling rivalry as quickly as he could.

"Why didn't you want me to meet him, Nicci?"

"Because I know you. I know how you are with men, and you are not going to do that to him."

Teeny folded her arms across her chest and took a defensive stance. "What do you mean?"

"You really want me to say it?"

"Yes."

"Okay, you're a slut." Nicole watched as her sister's face turned many shades of red, her green eyes wide and horrified, staring across into equally green defiant ones. "Now, if you'll excuse me, I have to get back in there." The redhead turned and walked back inside, thinking she had left her sister fuming quietly.

Unfortunately, she was wrong about that assumption. "You can't just say something like that and walk away from me!" Teeny had stormed into the house after Nicole, fuming not as quietly as the older sister would have hoped.

Her entrance had not been unnoticed by the other occupants of the house, either, especially not one in particular. The owner of the house took a few steps, stopping when she was standing in front of the younger sister of her tenant. "I thought I told you never to step foot inside this house again," Sam spat angrily at the woman, the Air Force colonel's formidable presence stopping the woman in her tracks.

A cold smile formed on Teeny's face as she stepped closer, raising herself on tiptoe to face the taller woman eye-to-eye. "Listen here, mortal, you do not tell me what to do, _capisce_?"

Just as it looked as if Sam would punch the smaller woman, Nicole grabbed her sister's arm and dragged her back outside, throwing her harshly into the sunlight. "I'm sorry that you don't like who you are, but you can't go around taking it out on me or my friends."

"As if I understood a word of that."

Nicole sighed and ran her hands over face. "I'm sorry I had to be the one to tell you what you are, and I know you're angry. But you respect me, right?"

"Well, yeah."

"Then please respect the woman who has taken me in, put a roof over my head, food on my plate, not to mention given me a job that I enjoy. She does _not_ deserve to be talked to that way. I should have told you that three years ago."

Another roll of the eyes and then: "Fine" before the bright light took over again and she was gone. Breathing out in relief, Nicole collapsed on the bench and pulled her knees up to her chest, needing a few minutes to recover before she went back inside.

The expression on Sam's face changed instantly when she heard what Nicole said about her. It softened immensely, and she even accepted the arms of her boyfriend when before she had pushed him away in her anger. Daniel, Teal'c, and Cameron all exchanged glances.

Finally the newest member of SG1 broke the silence. "So . . . I'm assuming this isn't the first time something like this has happened?"

Daniel nodded and answered softly, "There's always drama when Nicole's family is concerned."

"This is the first time I'm meeting her sister. Is this usually how they interact?"

"No, it is not," Teal'c replied, appearing puzzled by the behavior he had just witnessed. "Nicole and Athena are usually quite civil with each other."

"Huh," Cameron answered, "Nicole's the oldest, right?"

"Well, older than Teeny," Daniel replied. "They have an older brother, but they haven't heard from him in over a century."

"They don't know where he is?"

Daniel shook his head no. "No, he got married, and they haven't heard from him since. He and his wife are most likely using their abilities to remain hidden."

"So it's just Nicole and Teeny?"

"And their stepfather."

"Stepfather?"

"Yeah, you don't want to meet him." Daniel picked up the remote and turned the TV back on. The football game had been forgotten in all the excitement, but now Jack and Sam were coming back over to watch, apparently deciding to wait for Nicole to come in on her own.

Cameron took this as his signal to stop asking questions about Daniel's ex-girlfriend's family. He stood up and without saying a word made his way outside.

He sat down softly beside the red haired woman and draped an arm around her shoulders. "Hey, how are you doing?"

She shrugged and leaned into him. "Sorry you had to see that," she whispered, her tone revealing the pain she was trying to repress. "We're not usually like that."

"So I hear," he replied gently.

"She's just so . . . _frustrating_ sometimes. I try to be a good example for her, but she's so set in her ways, nothing I do now can change her."

"You feel responsible for how she is?"

Nicole nodded into his chest, a tear running down her cheek. "I used to think I could have anything I wanted, too, no matter who I hurt in the process. Just because we have these powers doesn't mean we can hurt people – took me a long time to figure that out."

"Well, what you said about Sam certainly had a good effect on her."

"Really?"

"Yeah – so why doesn't Sam like Teeny?"

Nicole laughed a little and wiped a tear away. "Something Teeny said when they first met. Sam's never forgiven her. Not that I blame her."

"What did she say?" The question hung in the air, but there was no response. Cameron's gaze moved from the backyard down the woman next to him only to find her eyes fixed on his face. "Nicole?"

Without a word, she moved closer and kissed him gently. He returned the pressure and pulled her closer to him. She turned in his arms as her arms twisted around his neck.

After a few minutes, Cameron pulled away softly and tucked a stray curl behind her ear. "Are you okay?" he asked quietly.

She nodded and replied, "Yeah, I'm feeling much better now. We should get back inside."

"Why?"

The corners of her lips tugged upward. "Well, I hear there's lots of pie."

"That's General O'Neill talking." This comment was rewarded with a full wattage smile. "Come on, Nicole, you know what I'm asking."

She stood up and pulled him with her, still holding onto his hand tenderly. "You can kiss me again later, Cameron," she said affectionately, her fingers interlacing with his.

His face lit up. "Promise?"

Giggling, she nodded and replied, "Promise."


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter Six

The elevator doors slid open, revealing a handsome man with blue eyes, dark hair, and glasses who was characteristically reading something from an open file. At the soft sound of the doors opening, his head raised slightly to see a certain red-headed engineer entering the lift. His eyes quickly found the words lining the page still poised in his hands, avoiding the green eyes of his ex-girlfriend upon his face.

"Good morning," she said when the doors closed once again.

"Uh, good morning," he mumbled in reply, not lifting his head from the report in his hands.

Shaking her head, she folded her arms across her chest and turned toward the man next to her. "Okay, Daniel, this is ridiculous. I've been here for six months, and we've barely said two words to each other."

"What do you want me to do about it?"

"Well, looking at me would be a good start," she replied accusingly as he felt her stare boring into the back of his head.

Sighing, he closed the file and met her gaze with his own. "Happy now?"

"It's a start." Just then, the doors opened, and he made a move to exit the lift. She followed him out the door and down the hall. "Don't think you're getting away that easily."

"You call that easy?" Daniel muttered to himself as he stepped into his office, leaving the door open for Nicole to follow.

This comment did not escape the ears of the formerly powerful being who, upon hearing the words, took a defensive stance next to the door, her arms crossed and her eyebrows lifted in disbelief. "At least I'm making an effort here."

"An effort to do what?"

"To be friends, Daniel. That's all I want. I'm not here to torture you or make you feel badly, despite what you're thinking."

Removing his glasses and rubbing the bridge of his nose slowly, Daniel replied, "Don't presume to know what I'm thinking."

Nicole sighed and dropped her arms, settling into a stool by the work table. "Okay then, what are you thinking?"

Ignoring the question, the archeologist replaced his glasses and asked one of his own, "Why do you want to be friends?"

"Because it's you and me, Daniel. I don't want to spend the rest of my six months here feeling as if you hate me the entire time. I don't feel that way about you at all."

"I don't hate you."

"Then stop acting like you do."

Breathing deeply to control his temper, Daniel turned to her and whispered in a low tone, "I'm not the one who ended things here, Nicole. Not really. You could have come to see me, explained the situation. I'm sure we would have no problems now if you had done that."

"Don't you think I considered that? But it was almost a year after the fact when I found out that you didn't remember anything about the time you were ascended, including how you told me we were over. At that point, I couldn't just drop in and tell you, so I left it to Sam. Bad decision, I know, but I couldn't risk coming to see you."

"Why not?"

Nicole sighed and tucked a stray hair behind her ear, a classic sign of discomfort for her. "Because I knew I wouldn't be able to tell you what had happened. The moment I saw you, I would have wanted to start things back up again, I know I would have."

This seemed to take Daniel by surprise. Shaking his head, he moved closer and sat down slowly onto a stool next to her. "Why didn't you ever tell me this before? Or Sam? I'm sure she could have explained that situation to me."

"I didn't want to admit that you still had that kind of power over me." Her eyes raised, and she found them locking with blue ones she knew too well. "It took me a long time to get over you, Daniel."

The man finally smiled for the first time since they had begun their conversation. "Getting over you wasn't easy, either."

A small smile crept onto Nicole's face, and she looked away, breaking eye contact. "So are we okay now?" she asked quietly, her eyes focusing on the table ledge before her.

"Just one more thing."

"And what would that be?"

Removing his glasses again, Daniel closed his blue eyes and took a deep breath. "How are things with Cameron?"

"Why? You still interested?" Nicole asked, her eyebrows raised, and her grin diving further into her cheeks, causing her few freckles to stand out more than usual.

"Are you?" Daniel came back quickly with a smirk to rival the woman beside him. Their eyes met, conveying their joke from one to the other, and they both began to laugh softly, feeling the tension between them begin to melt away.

Nicole shook her head and took a few controlled breaths trying to calm herself. Breathing deeply, she finally managed to ask, "Seriously, why do you ask about Cameron?"

The archeologist nodded and replied, "Because I'm concerned about my friend."

"Me?"

"Cameron."

"Oh," the red headed woman replied. All at once, understanding spread over her features, and she turned to look sharply at the man seated beside her. "You think I'm going to hurt him like I did you."

Daniel shrugged. "I know you. You don't want to stay here, as a mortal, for the rest of your life. Are you going to try to tell me that you're actually considering remaining human once your punishment is over?"

"He knows I'm going to change back into a Q, if that's what you mean."

"So then things aren't serious between you two?"

"I don't see how that is any of your business."

Sighing, Daniel stood up and began to pace the length of his office. "You are just so damned selfish, Nicole. You don't have to be around the man for more than two seconds to realize how much he obsesses over how _wonderful _you are or how lucky he is to have you in his life. If that's a man who knows you're leaving, then he's sure got everybody fooled."

"Well, I told him even before we started dating that I was leaving and nothing could change that. It's not my fault that he's chosen to conveniently forget about it."

"No, nothing's ever your fault, is it?"

Eyes flashing, Nicole rose to her feet, her anger so apparent it couldn't have been more evident if there had been flaming arrows shooting from her eyes. "You think you have all the answers, don't you, Daniel Jackson? You have me pegged as a self-righteous bitch, even after I confessed quite a few of my shortcomings. We're never going to get beyond that, are we? Back to when we first met, are we?"

Daniel sighed and shook his head, holding up a hand to stop the woman's ranting. "Okay, back up. I'm sorry for implying that you don't take responsibility for your actions. But could you please explain to me how you can let Cameron fall head over heels for you but don't even consider the fact that you're going to leave him in only six months?"

"Leave him? I never said I was going to leave him."

"But you said-"

Nicole shook her head furiously, cutting off the archeologist, "I said I was going to become a Q once again. I never said I was going to break up with him."

"That doesn't make sense."

"What? Dating someone of a different species? Come on, Daniel, you and I did it for a little while, Sam's done it, Jack's done it, and there's probably dozens of more examples of SGC personnel who have dated non-humans."

"Don't you remember why you _asked_ to be transformed into a human when we were dating?"

"To be with you. It was kind of difficult with my family breathing down my neck, and it was easier for you to not worry about me if I was human. Besides, you probably had a problem with me being smarter than you or something."

The archeologist peered at her disbelievingly over the rims of his glasses. "You don't remember, do you?"

"Nope," she answered in a regretful tone, suddenly finding the black tabletop very interesting again. "Remember I was a Q at the time . . . limited memories and all."

"I see," Daniel replied slowly. "Well, the reason is a little more complicated than anything you mentioned. You're right, we did try to have a relationship when you were a Q, but after a while it just didn't work."

"Why not?" He shot her another disbelieving look, at which she replied, "Come on, I would really like to know. It's apart of my past, too."

"It didn't work because of what you were."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"I have this theory – which you eventually agreed with – that Qs by nature are selfish creatures. This theory was formed by the patterns of your behavior. After spending weeks at a time here on earth with me, interacting with humans, you were sweet, caring, even selfless at times – basically like you are now – you know, human. But after spending any amount of time out with Teeny, somewhere out in the universe, you would come back and behave like a completely different person."

At this point, Nicole whispered in return, "Let me guess, I was selfish, domineering, and hurtful toward you?"

"Yeah. Is it coming back?"

"Partly." She sighed and slumped back into the stool, leaning on the table for support. "But Daniel, things were different after I became human. I was human for over a year before Teeny changed me back into a Q. From then on, I used my abilities to help others."

Daniel nodded. "Yeah, Sam told me why you were being punished, and I understand that you're trying to change for the better. I just think that it's part of being a Q to be selfish, partly because you can have whatever you want and partly because the elders indoctrinate that in you. Think about it, you were punished for doing something nice for someone else."

"No, I was punished for the mass exposure I caused for my kind . . . but it's true that they don't like us to use our abilities to help others. It is kind of against the rules."

"See?"

Nicole sighed and placed her head in her hands, her hands threading through the thick locks of her hair. "I know, Daniel. I know I'm just deceiving myself thinking that I can make much of a difference as a Q. But it's not that easy just to give it all up. You have to remember _that_."

"Of course I remember. I remember lots of tears and sleepless nights. I remember times you wanted to kill me for convincing you giving up your abilities was the right thing to do. I remember all the horror you went through before and after the decision, but I also remember something else."

"What?" The red haired woman asked, lifting her head a little.

Daniel's lips pulled upward slightly as he leaned toward her across the table. "You eventually came to the conclusion that you had done the right thing. And you have to admit, you were happy as a human, just like you're happy as a human now. Am I right?"

A soft smile appeared on Nicole's lips as she backed herself away from the table and crossed her arms over her chest. "There's a flaw in your thinking, Dr. Jackson."

"What's that?"

"Even though I am human now, I have the knowledge that I won't be this way indefinitely. They're changing me back in six months."

"Yeah, but are you even thinking that when you're with Cameron?" The woman lost her smile and shifted her eyes away from the archeologist. "I've got you there, don't I?"

Still avoiding eye contact, Nicole shakily answered, "I'm not ready to make that decision just yet."

"No one's pressuring you," Daniel answered softly. "But I think I need to tell you that it will have to be made eventually."

Her green eyes locked with his blue ones as she shook her head back and forth slowly. "I know," she whispered, her eyes filling with tears.

Walking through the grey corridors of the SGC, Nicole hoped she would not run into anyone she knew. It had been a close call in Daniel's office, but she had held in the tears and made the fastest exit she could recall. Still, she knew her eyes were probably all red and anyone who knew her well would be able to tell she was distressed. For the first time in six months she wished she had her Q abilities, at the very least they would have helped her to calm down and erase any evidence of the unshed tears. What she really wanted to do, though, was flash herself out of the star system and allow the tears to flow on some uninhabited planet none of the SGC staff had ever heard of.

"Nicole!" a very familiar voice reached her ears, causing her to stop her forward motion and turn slowly.

Cameron was approaching her quickly with a group of blue aliens. "Shit," she muttered under her breath and took several deep breaths to compose herself.

Apparently this didn't do much because his expression changed once he saw her face. His pace slowed and the smile that usually plastered his face disappeared. "Excuse me a moment, please," he said to the aliens and moved to his girlfriend's side.

"Did you want me to meet them?" she asked, in hopes of avoiding the conversation all together.

"In a minute," he answered in a hushed tone, cupping her cheek in his hand. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing, I just had a rather intense talk with Daniel."

"What did he say?"

She waved him off, noticing how irritated the aliens were beginning to look. "We can talk about it later, Cameron. I think you should get back to your tour."

"Okay . . . you're sure you're okay?"

"I'm fine. Why don't you introduce me to our guests?"

He nodded, leading her over to them. After the introductions, one of the aliens commented with wide eyes that seemed to rake up and down Nicole's body, "You have beautiful girlfriend, Colonel Mitchell."

Cameron regarded the alien with narrowed eyes and a suspicious expression. "Uh . . . thanks."

Nicole stared into the big glassy eyes of the alien and began to feel light-headed. Turning toward her boyfriend, she felt her feet begin to slip on the floor beneath her. "Cameron," she whispered before she collapsed into his arms unconscious.


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter Seven

She awoke to the sound of hushed whispers and scratchy sheets that seemed to claw at her. Groaning, she shifted in the bed and opened her eyes wearily. The sight that greeted her was two pairs of concerned eyes gazing down at her. "What happened?" Nicole asked her boyfriend and their doctor groggily.

"You collapsed in the hallway," Dr. Carolyn Lam told the woman as she checked Nicole's eyes for a concussion. "How have you been sleeping lately?"

Nicole coughed as she waved the doctor's efforts away with one hand and ripped the sheets off with the other. "I'm fine, Dr. Lam, really. It was just an emotional morning is all."

The doctor folded her arms over her chest and shook her head. "At least answer the sleep question before you go."

Rolling her eyes, the red head replied, "Yeah, so I've been having some trouble sleeping lately. Satisfied?"

"No. I've ordered a full set of blood tests to be done, and I'd like to do an MRI, if that's all right with you."

"An MRI? Don't you think that's a bit excessive?"

Dr. Lam accepted a clipboard from a nurse and shook her head no as she read the contents. "Before you came to the SGC, did you ever see a doctor?"

Nicole shook her head no. "Didn't need to. Besides, when your family is exploring deep space and there's hardly anyone else around, a doctor is a rare commodity to come by. My mother had a pretty good grasp on medicine, though. We were rarely ever sick."

"A pretty good grasp on medicine doesn't always cut it."

"I don't see what you're getting at. That was over a century ago. Qs don't get sick and they don't die. Why would I need a doctor?"

Sighing, the doctor placed the clipboard onto the bed and answered slowly, "You're not a Q right now, so I'd rather be safe than sorry. And anyway, Colonel Mitchell told me you were in contact with the new aliens today. I don't want to rule anything out."

Nicole turned to Cameron, her eyes pleading with him to get her out of a full day of medical tests. He smiled sadly and squeezed her arm affectionately. "We usually listen to our doctor around here. Please just humor her?" Sighing, she sullenly nodded in response.

After a full day of tests, Dr. Lam finally allowed Nicole to leave the infirmary until the test results came in. However, the woman gave Nicole strict orders not to return to work before it could be determined nothing was wrong with her.

As she walked along the corridor to the women's locker room, she was joined by a comforting presence. Feeling his hand slip into her hers, they fell into a an easy rhythm of walking side-by-side and silently enjoyed each other's company for a while. Finally she stopped by the door to the women's locker room and smiled sadly.

"Can't take you with me," she murmured softly.

He nodded as his hand slowly dropped out of hers. "I know. But I need to tell you something – something kind of secret. Can we go somewhere private?"

Surprised, she nodded and opened the door to the locker room gently, glancing inside. Finding it empty, she hurried her boyfriend in the door before she closed it softly behind them. "Okay, so I better not have done this just so we could make out," she told him sternly before they sat down on the bench in the middle of the room.

He shook his head no. "I wouldn't want to get you in trouble just for that. No, this is pretty big."

"Big?" she asked, confusion highlighting her features.

"Yeah, I need to ask you a favor. See, I think Sam has been compromised."

"Compromised? By who?"

"I don't know, but she's been acting very weird lately."

Nicole shook her head and replied, "I haven't noticed anything out of the ordinary about how she's been acting."

"Just trust me on this one, okay?" he answered, anger creeping into his voice, and the look he was giving his girlfriend was unlike any she had seen before. "Even the general agrees with me."

"The general?"

"Yes. He asked me to get him a file off of Sam's computer. But I can't possibly crack the security code she had on it."

"Whoa, hold on a minute there, buddy," Nicole interrupted, placing a soft hand on her boyfriend's chest. "You want _me_ to steal a file from Sam's computer?"

"The general wants you to."

She let out her breath slowly – she hadn't even realized she had been holding it, but the gravity of the situation had caught her completely off-guard. Standing, she went to her locker and leaned against the wall, letting it support her weight. Sighing, she covered her face in her hands and rubbed her closed eyes gently with her fingertips. "Dammit, Cameron, what is this about? Why is the file so important?"

He was beside her before she even realized he had left the bench and drew her into his arms. "I know this is hard, but I'm not allowed to disclose any more about the mission than I have already told you. Trust me when I say it is very important, otherwise you know I would never ask you to betray Sam like this. I just don't think we can trust her right now."

"Is she under alien influence?"

"I think so."

She took a few minutes to consider her options, but in the end she knew she was the only one capable to completing the mission that was presented to her. Coming to a decision, she replied softly, "Fine, I'll do it. Now get out so I can get changed."

The laptop sat on the desk humming quietly in its own little way. Nicole opened it slowly and quietly, wondering to herself why it intimidated her so much. It was, after all, just a machine, and she was good with machines. Still, it was so important to Sam that it was like an extension of the woman's body, an extension that Nicole felt like she was violating just by turning it on.

She could feel the guilt rip through her as she began to sift through its files, noticing several locked ones she didn't dare try to open. Until she came to the one she was searching for. It took several attempts to decipher the code the brilliant astrophysicist had used to lock it, but finally the former Q succeeded and began to download the file onto a disc, the guilt still eating away at her.

Just as the disc drive popped open and Nicole was telling the computer to shut down, there was the telltale sound of the door opening. Panicking, the red haired woman grabbed the disc and stuffed it into her pocket before the door opened, revealing a face she had grown accustomed to seeing every day. But instead of the usual cheer in seeing her friend, Nicole was filled with fear that her mission would be discovered.

Glancing up from her report, Sam noticed the other woman standing in her office and frowned slightly. "Nicole? What's going on? Do you need something?"

"Uh . . . no, I was just . . . um, wondering if Jack was coming for a visit this weekend. See, Dr. Lam told me to take some time off of work, I thought the four of us should do something together. But if he's not coming, then I mean, I suppose Cameron and I could do something or you and I could. Whatever's fine with me."

Sam smiled and placed the file onto her desk. "You're rambling again. Is everything all right?"

"What? Oh, sure, yeah, everything's fine. Just had medical tests done today. Not really thrilled at that sort of thing, you know?"

"I know," Sam replied, sitting on her stool and pressing the button to turn on the laptop computer.

"Well, I guess I'd better get going. It looks like you've got a lot of work to do. I'll just leave you to it," Nicole said, backing away toward the door.

The Air Force colonel raised her eyebrows at the red head and looked at her quizzically. "But you didn't even get your answer about Jack yet."

"Oh, that's okay. I can just catch you later."

"Are you sure you're okay?"

"Yeah, I'm fine."

Just then, the computer beeped, causing Sam to glance down at it and frown deeply. Nicole cursed mentally to herself, realizing the brilliant woman probably had a failsafe built into her computer, one that told her whenever a file had been downloaded and copied onto a disc. The former Q chastised herself for not thinking of it sooner.

"Nicole, were you looking for something on my computer?" Sam asked, her blue eyes staring coldly into Nicole's green ones. "Did you . . . take something?"

"She knows," a voice whispered in Nicole's ears. Startled, the woman turned to see her boyfriend standing behind her, his arms crossed and his expression stern. "You have to shoot her."

"What?" The redhead replied in a shocked tone, even though she had prepared for this possibility, the proof in the zat gun strapped to her ankle. "I was hoping I wouldn't have to do that," she whispered through clenched teeth.

"Nicole?" Sam asked, obviously waiting for a response.

Bending down and ripping the velco as quietly as she could, Nicole replied as casually as she could, "Yeah, I was going to play a game while I waited for you, but couldn't crack your password to get on, so I just gave up and shut it down."

Disbelief in her voice, Sam answered, "_You_ couldn't crack the password?"

"I'm sorry, Sam," the red head said simply.

"For what?"

"For this," Nicole answered as she hit the button to open the zat gun and fired before Sam could answer. As she watched the woman slump the ground, a tear escaped her eye and ran down her cheek. Brushing it away, she moved to the other side of the desk where Sam was lying on the ground unconscious. Squatting down next to the still form of her friend, Nicole brushed a few blonde hairs away from the woman's face and whispered hoarsely, "I am so sorry."

"Sorry? For what?" Cameron asked as he came up behind her. "I don't even think that's the real Sam."

"What?"

"I think you should shoot her again, just to be sure."

Her eyes wide, Nicole stood up and quickly and backed away from the sight of her boyfriend leaning over the prone form of their friend. Gasping for breath, the woman raised the zat gun again, this time pointing it at the man in front of her. Her hands were shaking so badly from fear, panic, and guilt that she wondered if she could even pull the trigger again, but she kept the weapon trained on the man anyway. "Who the hell are you?"

"Come on, Nicci, it's me, Cameron. You wouldn't shoot the man you love, would you?" he asked, a cold smile settling on his features.

"You're not Cameron Mitchell."

"Oh, I'm not, am I?"

"Get away from me," Nicole hissed before running out the open office door, heading for the infirmary as fast as her legs would carry her.

Dr. Lam looked up when the red head came racing into the room, the zat gun still held precariously in her left hand. Standing up from her desk chair, she told the woman lightly, "You don't need to threaten me, Nicole. You can see your lab results."

The former Q collapsed into the chair opposite the doctor's desk and handed Dr. Lam her weapon. "Take it. I don't want to threaten you, Doc. I just want to know what's wrong with me."

"Wrong with you?"

"Yeah, please tell me there's something wrong with me."

Dr. Lam shook her head and sat down again, glancing at the open files before her. "The lab results came back negative. You're perfectly healthy. But we're still waiting on the MRI." Her eyes narrowed on the out of breath woman before her. "Why don't you tell me what you think is wrong with you?"

"I'm hallucinating. At least I think I am. That's the only explanation for Cameron's strange behavior."

"Colonel Mitchell? What kind of strange behavior?"

"He told me to kill Sam."

The doctor's eyebrows raised in surprise as she grabbed a pen and paper and began to jot down some notes. "Really? What makes you think there's something wrong with you? Have you considered Colonel Mitchell may have been compromised on a previous mission?"

"I'm beginning to get sick of the word _compromised_. First he told me Sam had been compromised and then he told me it wasn't even really her. It doesn't make any sense."

Dr. Lam considered this for a moment, chewing on the pen idly before responding, "Maybe they're working together. Have you told the general about this?"

"No, I came right here."

"Did you get the file of Colonel Carter's computer?"

When the question finally registered in Nicole's brain, her head jerked up and her green eyes were wide and fearful. "What?"

"Did you get the file?" Dr. Lam repeated, pen poised over the paper, ready to write. "It's not that difficult of a question."

"No. . ." Nicole began slowly, her eyes narrowing on the woman behind the desk. "Sam interrupted me."

"Well then don't you think you should go back and try again?"

"Is there a foothold situation I don't know about?" the red head mentally asked herself as soon as she left the doctor's office and shut the door securely behind her. "What is going on?"

Before she could react, a hard grabbed her arm and spun her around so that she was face to face with her attacker. "What do you think you're doing?" Cameron asked, his hands digging so deeply into her arms, she knew there would be bruises for weeks.

"You're hurting me," she stated with the least amount of emotion she could. "Please let go."

"Why are you questioning me? Don't you trust me?"

"Not when you ask me to kill one of my best friends, Cameron. Would you please let go of my arms?"

He released her, pushing her away from him with enough force to land her on the floor. "Where's the gun?" he asked, looking around as if it had dropped in the struggle.

"I left in Dr. Lam's office. What's going on, Cameron?"

"I already told you everything I could. Stop asking because you're not going to get anything else from me."

"Nicole?" Another voice reached her ears, this time belonging to a concerned woman. When she turned in the direction of the voice, she saw Sam coming toward her slowly, a zat gun poised in her two hands and confusion written all over her face. "Who are you talking to, Nicole?"

Looking back at the man who was standing menacingly above her, Nicole knew she had been right the first time: she was hallucinating. But in that case, who could she trust? Dr. Lam had obviously been the wrong choice. How did Nicole really know that it was Sam who was walking cautiously toward her? Or was it just another hallucination meant to trick her into a false sense of security before another bad thing happened.

But her options were limited at the moment, so Nicole made the most educated decision she could. Acting quickly, she swiped her leg out under the man before her, causing him to fall. Without a moment's delay, she jumped up and ran toward the blonde woman, hoping the gun wouldn't go off in the process.

Startled, Sam made her own split-second decision and pressed the button on the zat gun, causing the usual sound and discharge. Nicole slumped to the ground unconscious for the second time that day.

This time she awoke swearing and with a giant headache, but once again in the infirmary. Dr. Lam was by her side in moments, holding the red haired woman down and asking for a sedative. Nicole's eyes snapped open as she grabbed the doctor's arm forcefully. "No, please don't," she whispered.

"You're going to behave?" the doctor asked. "And watch your language in my infirmary?"

"Yes," the woman answered and pulled away, resting on the pillow behind her. "What happened?" she asked, desperately needing to know if the day she remembered had actually happened.

"You attacked Colonel Carter," Dr. Lam replied. "But I think I know why."

"Please don't use the word _compromised_."

This was met with a confused look, but the doctor shrugged and continued, "All right. You were under alien influence. The MRI we took showed unusual activity in a portion of your brain that sent up red flags to me. I think the aliens you came in contact with earlier today somehow formed a telepathic link with you and were trying to get you to fulfill some kind of mission."

"Is it still there?"

"No, everything is normal now. I think the stun from the zat gun disrupted whatever hold the aliens had over you. Do you have any idea what they wanted you to do?"

"My pants," Nicole croaked.

"What?"

Nicole took a deep breath and answered, "In my pants, there is a disc that one of my hallucinations told me to get from Sam's computer. I told another hallucination that I didn't get it, but I lied."

Dr. Lam moved to get the disc from her patient's pocket and held it in her latex covered hands. "You said you had hallucinations?" she asked inquisitively.

"Yeah, I think that's how the aliens were communicating with me."

Just then, two people walked into the infirmary and stopped by the bed occupied by a certain red haired woman. "So what's the prognosis, Doc?" Cameron asked with a smile and twinkle in his eye. Finding his girlfriend's hand, he squeezed gently in an effort to comfort her.

"Well, aside from what may feel like a massive hangover, I think she's going to be fine." Dr. Lam handed the disc to Sam and said, "I believe that's what you were looking for earlier, Colonel. Don't worry, I don't think Nicole meant any harm by taking it."

Sam took the disc and looked at it carefully. "Thanks," she answered before the doctor left the three friends alone. "Well, I'm headed back to my lab to find out what was so important you felt you had to zat me," Sam said as she patted Nicole's covered feet. "Get better soon so that you can show me how you bypassed my security network."

Nicole smiled and nodded before watching the blonde leave the infirmary. Cameron released his girlfriend's hand and moved to sit beside her on the bed. Wrapping his arm around her shoulders, he smiled as she snuggled in beside him, her arms snaking around him and pulling him closer.

She reveled in the feeling of having her real boyfriend next to her, holding her and somehow keeping the evil of the world out, even if only for a moment. Sighing, her head dropped onto his shoulder as she whispered, "I feel like crap, Cameron."

"Well, Dr. Lam said you'd feel like you have a _massive_ hangover. Have you even had a mild one before?"

"Once, and we don't want to get into that story. But that's not the only way I feel badly."

Cameron nodded and began to stroke her hair gently, wrapping his free arm around his girlfriend, tucking her into his strong arms. "You mean you feel really guilty for shooting Sam?" She nodded into his chest, her eyes closing for a moment as she wished for the entire day to do over again.

"That's understandable," her boyfriend told her, genuinely trying to make her feel better.

She shrugged. "Did I ever tell you she reminds me of my mother?"

"Who? Sam?" Nicole nodded. "No, you haven't." They sat in silence for a few minutes before Cameron asked quietly, "Was your mom a blonde, too?"

Nicole giggled a little and shook her head. "No, actually her hair was more reddish-brown."

"Ah, is that where your red hair comes from?"

"I guess."

"Why does Sam remind you of your mom?"

"Oh, I suppose because my mom was a brilliant astrophysicist, too." Cameron looked over at her, his eyebrows raised in suspicion. "What? She was – only we don't call them astrophysicists in the 24th century. We just call them scientists usually."

"What did she study?"

"Deep space . . . actually we all kind of did. Didn't have another choice. Being stuck way out in the middle of nowhere with a spaceship that kept breaking down doesn't give anyone much of a choice. It was all my dad, brother, and I could do to keep the thing running."

"Teeny didn't help?"

"She was too young and too naïve. I started helping at a younger age because my father thought I had a knack for engineering."

Cameron smiled and nodded. "I can see that . . . so did you get along with your mom?"

Nicole nodded. "Famously. She was my role model. I wanted to be just like her."

"What happened to her?"

"She died. A few months before my father."

"I'm sorry."

Nicole shrugged. "I wouldn't have become a Q if they had lived."

"Was it a fair trade?"

She glanced up at him in surprise, but eventually let out a long breath and replied softly, "I don't know."

Cameron waited a minute before asking another question. "What were their names?"

"My parents?" He nodded. "Dr. Katelyn Roslyn and Kenneth Leah." He looked at her strangely. "What?"

"Didn't know you had last names in the future."

She laughed, the sound filling her ears and causing hope to stir in her. Nodding, she replied, "Yes, humans have last names in the future. Qs do not."

"Why not?"

"I don't know. Maybe the act of removing our last name put distance between us and humanity."

He smiled down at her and leaned down to kiss her lightly. "A lot of good that did then," he said simply. "Changing the subject a little," he began, gauging her reaction before continuing, "What did you and Daniel talk about this morning?"

Losing her smile, her head dipped as she found a sudden interest in the pockets of his SGC uniform. "We talked about a lot. But if you're referring to the way I looked earlier, well, that's kind of complicated."

"He didn't say anything hurtful, did he?"

"Not really. But he did say some things that got me thinking. It's nothing you need to worry about. He just made me think, which isn't a bad thing, but what he made me think about was just unexpected."

Her boyfriend considered this for a minute before asking quietly, "He doesn't want to get back together with you, does he?"

The woman in his arms laughed a little at this, but shook her head vehemently no. "No, we've both moved on."

"Good."

"You don't have anything to worry about," she told him gently as she stretched a little to plant a small kiss on his cheek. "I'm still madly in love with you."

He looked down at her, the edges of his lips pulling upward. "You're madly in love with me?"

Rolling her eyes, she avoided meeting his gaze. "I forgot you didn't mention it earlier."

"Mention it earlier?"

"When I was hallucinating, you asked if I would really shoot the man I love. I forgot it wasn't you."

"You were hallucinating me?"

She nodded. "And you told me to kill Sam. That's when I knew it wasn't really you."

"I told you to shoot Sam?"

"Yeah, you should know better than telling me to shoot my best friend."

He smiled and kissed the top of her head sweetly. "I swear I'll never do it again. I'll just log it away with the other info you've told me. _Don't ever tell Nicci to shoot your second in command, Cameron._ Okay, got it."

"Thank you," she responded with a tilt of her head and a knowing smile on her face. "For making fun of me yet again."

"Oh, but you know it's done in love," he told her, once again leaning over to touch his lips to hers.


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter Eight

"Honey, I'm home!" Cameron's greeting jolted Nicole upright on the sofa causing the papers in her lap to tumble out of the file onto the floor at her feet. Muttering to herself, the woman groggily bent over and began to pick up the report and sort the papers into the correct order as her boyfriend entered the living room of his apartment. "Did you fall asleep again?" he asked, a grin finding it's way onto his cheeks.

She nodded and moved her hair out of her face as she turned to smile blearily at her boyfriend. "I told you I haven't been sleeping well lately," she replied, closing the folder, having finally assembled the papers in the correct order. "Sorry."

"No, it's perfectly understandable, considering. Don't apologize. How far did you get?"

"Far enough," she replied, watching as Cameron set the grocery bags down on the counter and began to unpack the food inside. "These Ori seem to be unlike any species I've ever heard of. But you know how horrible I am with history. SG1 was the only piece of history class I was ever remotely interested in. Science and engineering were more of my idea of fun."

Cameron nodded as he finished the last of his unpacking. Coming to join her, he picked up another file and handed it to his girlfriend. "Ready for another?"

Shaking her head, she replied lightly, "No, not yet. Maybe tomorrow?"

Smiling sadly, he nodded and pulled her into his arms. "That's okay. You deserve a break anyway. Thanks for helping me out with this."

"I don't feel as if I'm helping all that much, but at least it gives me something to do. Did I tell you Dr. Lam doesn't want me coming into work for at least another week? She wants to make sure the hallucinations don't return."

"Only about a hundred times."

She smiled a little and dropped her gaze. "Sorry."

"No, that's okay. I understand you want to be kept busy. Hopefully this project is helping with that."

Shrugging, she turned to pick up the glass of water next to her and took a sip before changing the subject. "By the way, who's this Vala woman I keep reading about? I remember reading that she and Daniel were connected by some bracelets she tricked him into wearing, but it's pretty vague from that point on."

Cameron laughed a little and shook his head, his eyes holding a far off look as he replied, "Ah, yes, Vala. She was a strange one. Had a very weird obsession with Daniel, that's for sure. But I guess I shouldn't complain. If she hadn't slapped that bracelet on his wrist, he'd be in the Pegasus Galaxy by now."

"Pegasus Galaxy? You mean he'd be in Atlantis?"

"Yeah. You know he always wanted to go, right? Vala made sure that didn't happen."

Nicole nodded. "Well, Daniel's fascination with Atlantis began after we broke up, but Sam did mention some stake-out they had at his place one time when Osiris was somehow getting into his dreams looking for the lost city. Then there was the time Jack got himself frozen . . . but I don't know much about Atlantis because I wasn't really around while all of that was going on. I stayed away for a reason." She shot him a significant look, one which he took to mean she wanted him to drop the subject.

Clearing his throat, he replied, "Well, anyway, Vala stayed in the SGC for over a month, until she risked her life to stop the Ori's gigantic Stargate from forming."

"Yeah, I read about that. Does anyone know what happened to her?"

Cameron shook his head no. "Not for sure. Sam thinks Vala ended up in Ori space, though."

"Which means she could be dead for all we know."

"True."

Nicole sighed and leaned against her boyfriend. "Too bad. I'm sure Daniel misses her."

Cameron shot her a confused expression. "Misses her? He couldn't stand her. You should have seen the two of them go at it at times."

"Go at it?"

"As in fighting, not anything else. I know she wanted to hop into bed with him, but he wasn't even remotely interested in her in that way. But I think by the time she left he was used to having her around. He probably misses her presence just because he got used to it."

Nicole shrugged and began to pull away from her boyfriend. Standing, she picked up the last folder Cameron had handed her and looked down at him. "Do you mind if I take this with me?" she asked, waving the file before him.

He shook his head. "Where are you going?"

"Home. I think I need some sleep."

"You're going to walk?"

"No, I'm going to get in my imaginary car and drive there."

Smiling, he took her hand and shook his head again. "I'm sure you would, but I think a real car would be better. Can I offer you a ride?"

"I would prefer to walk. It's a lovely day."

"And I would prefer that you not be exposed with that folder you're carrying." Rolling her eyes, Nicole nodded glumly and consented to the ride. Cameron smiled as he stood to follow her. "You know you _could_ just sleep here. You didn't have a problem with it while I was out."

Shaking her head, she turned and replied without a smile, "You know very well I don't want to make a habit of sleeping here. That leads to spending the night, something I don't want to do."

"See, that I don't understand. You lived with Daniel the last time you were human. Why won't you even spend the night with me?"

Sighing, Nicole stepped into her boyfriend's arms and curved her face upward to look into his eyes. "Cameron, you know I love you. But I was raised to believe that sex outside of marriage is wrong and doesn't lead to lasting relationships. The one experience I have in dating kind of proves that point. I made a mistake before, but I don't want to make it again. It doesn't mean I love you any less than I did Daniel."

He gazed down at her and tucked her hair behind her ears affectionately. Sighing softly, he nodded and answered softly, "I know, it's just hard for me to grasp that concept of sex before marriage being wrong. Even though my grandmother was a Christian, I was not raised with her exact standard of morals. My parents had different ideas of what was right and wrong."

"I know it's hard. It's no picnic for me, either, Cameron. But I'm trying to do what I think is right for a change." Moving away, she slipped her hand into hers and tugged. "Now can we go?"

Cameron's SUV rolled to a stop in front of Sam's house. The driver placed the car into park and turned off the engine, signifying to the woman next to him that he wanted to talk before she left. She waited for a moment before he asked quietly, "Did you have the dream again?"

She nodded. "But I don't want to talk about it."

He smiled sadly and retuned the gesture. "All right. But if you decide you want to, I'm here, okay?"

"Okay."

As Nicole entered the house with her eyes focused on the floor beneath her feet, she dropped her purse by the door and pulled off her coat slowly, hanging it in the closet by the door. Running a hand through her unruly hair, Nicole moved to the kitchen hoping she might find some calming tea to drink before she headed upstairs to collapse into the bed.

When she walked into the kitchen, she discovered that she wasn't as alone as she had thought. Though her back was toward Nicole, the blonde woman was aware of the red head's arrival. "Sam? Where's your car? I didn't see it out there."

"Jack borrowed it to run some errands." Sam replied softly before she turned and placed a cup of steaming tea on the island between them. "Want some?" she asked quietly, her tone of voice telling her tenant to take a seat.

Nicole nodded and sat down on one of the stools beside the island, folding her hands on the countertop. "Please," she whispered simply.

Sam pushed the mug toward Nicole and then moved to make herself a cup. After a few minutes of silence, the blonde finally said in a tone of certainty, "You've been avoiding me."

"Maybe."

"Maybe?" Sam turned with the mug in her hands, her expression one of disbelief, but not anger as Nicole had been expecting. "You live in my house. The chances of us missing each other every day for a week are slim to none. I know you're trying to avoid me but what I can't figure out is why."

Green eyes remained glued to the clear brown liquid in the mug on the counter. After considering what Sam had said, Nicole finally responded with a shrug. "I feel badly for what I did."

"For shooting me."

"Yeah."

"Why? It wasn't your fault."

"No one pulled the trigger for me."

Sam shook her head and placed her cup on the countertop in between them. "You even said you were sorry before you did it, Nicole. That tells me you didn't want to."

"But I could have chosen not to."

"With Cameron telling you to? Not likely. You trust him."

Shrugging again, Nicole picked up her mug and took a sip of the hot liquid. She focused on trying to enjoy it rather than the topic at hand. For a few minutes her tactic worked, but finally she caved under the intense gaze coming from the blue eyes directly opposite her position. Sighing, she said slowly, "So I've been having this dream lately, making it impossible for me to get much sleep. Cameron's been bugging me to tell him what's wrong, so I told him a little bit about it. It starts out like last week in your office. I shoot you with the zat, only in my dream I actually kill you. But when I look down at your body, it isn't you. It's my mother. So it's a double whammy, you know? Like I killed both you and my mom."

Sam shook her head sadly and reached across the island to cover Nicole's hands with her own. "But you didn't kill either of us. I'm still here, and I'm sure you had nothing you do with your mother's death."

"She was sick. Did you know that?"

"Your mother?" Sam asked, withdrawing her hands and leaning against the island, waiting for Nicole to respond.

Nicole nodded. "In the 24th century, having cancer should be no big deal. They have a cure for it. But when you're stuck out in deep space, five years from the closest starbase, even at maximum warp, if you find out you have cancer, you're pretty much a goner. She tried to heal it herself with the limited amount of medical knowledge she had – and it backfired, killing her more quickly. If I could have just gotten her to the starbase sooner, then she wouldn't have had to try to cure herself."

"How could you have gotten her to the starbase any faster?"

"I'm an engineer. It's my job to make the engines faster."

"How old were you, Nicole?"

"Thirteen, but that's no excuse. My father asked me to make the engines faster, and I couldn't." Tears began to slip silently from the red head's green eyes. "Damn science vessel couldn't go faster than warp five."

"That's not your fault."

Drawing in a deep breath, Nicole pushed herself away from the island counter and hopped off the stool. Dabbing at her eyes and wiping away the tears, the red haired woman took a few deep breaths and whispered softly, "Thanks for trying, Sam. I'll see you later." Without another word, she picked up her tea from the counter and left the room headed for the stairs.

"Do you want to double this weekend?" Sam called after her, causing Nicole to smile briefly, touched that her friend was reaching out to her.

"Sure. Cameron told me about that steak place O'Mally's. It sounds really good. How about we go there?"

She heard a chuckle from the kitchen, then Sam appeared in the hallway, looking up at Nicole on the stairs. "Jack and I were told never to go back to that place. They probably still have our pictures up in there, telling their employees not to let us in."

"Why?" Nicole asked, intrigued by the news.

"Remember those Tok'ra armbands I told you about?"

Nicole nodded, understanding beginning to flood her features. "You went there and got in a bar fight, didn't you?"

Sam shrugged, fighting a smile. "These guys we were playing pool with called Daniel a geek. We just couldn't let that go."

"Alien influence," Nicole whispered as she stifled a yawn. "Okay, well, we'll figure out where to go _after_ my nap."

"Sounds good."

Just as Nicole finished buttoning the last button on her shirt, Dr. Lam came back into the infirmary, pushing the curtain aside a little so she could enter the small room she had created for Nicole's privacy. The patient turned around and leaned against the bed as she asked her doctor, "So if the MRI comes back clean, can I go back to work this afternoon?"

Dr. Lam smiled and shook her head gently, her arms wrapping around the clipboard she was carrying, pinning it to her chest. "You're as bad as I've heard Colonel Carter is," she remarked with an unbelieving expression glued to her face. "Tell you what – if the MRI shows you aren't in contact with the aliens anymore, you can go back to work tomorrow. How's that?"

"It's okay, I guess, but what am I supposed to do until then?"

"Take it easy. Relax. Read a book, watch some television – _go home_. Just don't hang around here."

Nicole sighed, pushing off from the edge of the bed and wrenching the curtain aside. "I've already read at least ten books since you put me on sick leave, not to mention the reports Cameron's been feeding me. And television isn't as exciting as a holodeck . . . when are you people going to invent that anyway?"

General Hank Landry stood in the back of the control room, his eyes fixed on a certain woman with curly red hair who was sitting off to one side and watching as teams went in and out of the Stargate. When Lt. Simmons decided to brush by the general, the senior officer grabbed the smaller man's arm and asked quickly, "How long has she been sitting there?"

"At least two hours, sir," was the soft response.

Landry nodded and replied, "Get me Colonel Mitchell."

Cameron arrived about fifteen minutes later and was ushered into the general's office. After many rounds of "yes,sir" he was finally released from his commanding officer's presence. Shaking his head, he drew in a deep breath, letting it out slowly as he watched his unmoving girlfriend from afar. He moved to stand behind her chair and waited until she noticed him.

It didn't take very long. Without turning, she greeted him simply. "Hi, Cameron."

"Nicole," he answered, wetting his lips and crossing his arms over his chest before continuing, "What are you doing here?"

"They want me to leave, don't they?"

"Well, you are kind of distracting."

She shook her head. "No, they're all afraid I'm going to start shooting them at any moment."

"That's not true. General Landry just doesn't like extra people in the control room unless they're working. Besides, I hear you've been here a while."

Shrugging, she replied, "I guess so. Haven't really kept track of time. Dr. Lam told me to take it easy."

"She also told you to go home."

Finally turning, Nicole flashed him a grin and stood up next to him. "Touché," she whispered in his ear and left the room quickly.

Following, he asked from a few feet behind her, "You didn't answer my question."

"And what question would that be?"

He smiled, thinking back to the first day they had met when she had answered in the exact same way when he had informed her she had ignored his question. Falling into step with her, he replied, "What were you doing in there?"

"Watching people go through the Stargate."

"But why?"

She shrugged again. "I just find it fascinating, that's all."

"Have you ever been through it?" She shook her head. Cameron's eyebrows raised in disbelief. "Really? I could probably convince the general to let us go somewhere fast, just so you can experience it. SG1 isn't scheduled for any missions today, I'm sure he wouldn't mind."

"That's okay, I'd rather not," she answered hastily, her pace increasing, causing him to have to hustle to keep up with her.

"Why not?"

"Because I don't want to, can't we just leave it at that?"

"No, we can't just leave it at that. Most people would kill for this chance. Why aren't you even the least bit interested?"

She spun to face him, which made him stumble back a few feet in surprise. The color of her face was quickly changing to match her hair, embarrassment evidently flooding through her. "Because I'm afraid, okay?"

"What?" Cameron asked incredulously. "I didn't think you were afraid of anything."

"Well, I am."

"How, with all your engineering knowledge and future experiences can you be afraid of something that is probably very common in your world?"

She shook her head vehemently. "It's not common – it doesn't even exist where I come from."

"What? Why haven't you mentioned that before?"

"Because I do care about the timeline, even if by being here I'm still changing it. I just know that there are things I can't tell anyone about the future. Some things are meant to be surprises."

"But then how does everyone get around from planet to planet if not by Stargate?"

"The old fashioned way – starships. You know, like the Prometheus and the Daedelous. And we transport from ship to ship or down to planets. It's kind of like the Asgard's beaming technology, only humans created their own."

"Let me get this straight. You're okay with _transporting_ but not with going through the Stargate?"

Nicole turned to continue walking, but replied, "I'm not okay with transporting. I'm afraid of that, too. Luckily, life as a Q didn't require transporting."

"But it required _flashing_."

She waved his explanation away, almost hitting him as he hurried to catch up with her. "Completely different. As Qs, we exist as pure energy. There are no molecules to rearrange once the process of flashing is done."

"We've never lost anyone in the Stargate."

"I beg to differ. Teal'c got stuck in there once."

Cameron sighed. "I'm not going to convince you it's safe, am I?"

"Nope."


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter Nine

The blue event horizon shimmered and sparkled, shifting slightly as four people dressed in black and carrying battle rifles emerged from the seemingly calm waters. The group of villagers surrounding the Stargate took a step backward, away from the strangers who had appeared from the ring.

Lt. Colonel Cameron Mitchell stepped forward and said lightly, "It's okay, folks. We're professionals."

Two hours later, the team known as SG1 was sitting around a roaring fire, enjoying the celebration being held in their honor by the natives. Dr. Daniel Jackson squatted in front of the two Lt. Colonels, a grin covering most of his face, and said excitedly, "As far as I can tell, this civilization seems to be very similar to the pre-colonization Native American culture. And they have been left untouched by the Gou'ld for several generations. It is the perfect opportunity to study. . ." he trailed off as he watched several women dance around the fire in traditional clothing. "Be right back," he muttered as he went off to follow the dancers.

Sam Carter and Cameron Mitchell shared a laugh to the bemusement of the tall dark Jaffa who took a seat beside Colonel Carter. Teal'c had a plate piled high with food and was currently trying to drop something akin to a snail into his mouth. Sam and Cameron stared incredibly at him until he finally noticed and asked quietly, "Is something wrong?"

As they shook their heads, Cameron answered in his usual joking tone, "You're really going to town there, aren't you, Teal'c?"

The Jaffa took a break from eating long enough to glance around at the villagers and reply innocently, "I do not know of any town nearby, Colonel Mitchell."

"It's an expression, Teal'c," Sam tried to explain to her friend, "It means that Colonel Mitchell thinks you have taken a lot of food to eat."

"I do not understand, Colonel Carter."

Sam shook her head and laid a comforting hand on her dark friend's arm. "I think he's just wondering about your choice of nourishment."

It may have been dark and the only light illuminating their conversation was the fire, but the two Lt. Colonels could have sworn they saw a smile forming on the Jaffa's face. "This food is very similar to what is served on Chulak. In fact it is considered a delicacy at our table."

"Well, that explains it," Cameron remarked as he threw his own food into the fire and watched it burn.

Sam giggled, but didn't follow suit, instead reaching for something that looked like chicken and bit into it, telling herself it was no different from earth food. Finally losing that battle, she placed the meat back onto the plate and turned to Cameron, wiping her mouth with something she assumed was a napkin. "So how are things with you and Nicole? You haven't been hanging around my house lately."

Cameron smiled and leaned back against the log behind them. "No, it's been so beautiful lately, we've been spending most of our time outdoors. She loves hiking and camping. Funny, though. I never would have pegged her as an outdoor lover."

Sam nodded. "Me, either. She and Daniel never did any of that stuff."

"Well, she loves it. But she's killing me with the little amount of sleep she needs. I barely sleep on the camping trips. Damn woman wakes up at the crack of dawn."

"So do I," the blonde next to him replied, completely forgetting her own food as they continued to watch Teal'c enjoy his. "You think there's something wrong with that?" Cameron shrugged but didn't respond, knowing he wouldn't win whatever argument that would follow. "So does this mean the two of you are finally sleeping together?"

Her team leader snorted and crossed his arms over his chest. "If by sleeping you mean in separate sleeping bags in the same tent, then yes. If you mean the way normal couples do, then no, we're not."

"She's still promoting celibacy?"

"Very funny. You know, it's actually not that bad. I like getting to know her in other ways before we get physical. I've never felt this way about anyone else before, and I don't want to screw that up by jumping into bed with her."

Sam's eyebrows shot up in surprise. Before she could respond, though, Teal'c remarked in between bites, "Colonel Mitchell is correct." Both Sam and Cameron turned to him, waiting for him to continue. They didn't have to wait very long. "My wife and I found that waiting until marriage increased the odds of success in the marriage. We did know each other quite well when we were finally intimate."

"I thought your marriage was arranged," Sam replied.

Teal'c shook his head. "You are mistaken, Colonel Carter. Drey'auc and I did not have an arranged marriage."

"You never talk about your wife, Teal'c. Do you think I could meet her someday?" Cameron asked, leaning forward in interest.

Again Teal'c shook his head. "She is dead, Colonel Mitchell."

"Oh," Cameron sat back and turned back to the fire, his expression changing instantly to one of regret and sorrow. "I'm sorry."

"You did not know. There is no need to apologize," Teal'c replied as he again picked up his food and started to eat.

It was this conversation that played itself over and over in Teal'c's head later that week as he sat down in his room to kelnorim. He had not thought of his wife in many years, not since her unfortunate death that had scarred him more deeply than he would have liked to admit. Not only had it wounded his own heart, but it had almost cost him the delicate relationship he had with his son, Rya'c. Thoughts of his family were making this kelnorim exceptionally difficult, even more difficult than it usually was without his symbiote.

In the middle of these thoughts, he heard a soft knock on his door. Resigning himself from the kelnorim attempt momentarily, he stood and answered the door, slightly surprised to see the curly red haired woman on the other side. He moved aside, allowing her to walk past him before he shut the door behind her.

She stopped in the middle of the brightly lit candles, their flame dancing on her light skin and reflecting the moisture that precariously perched itself at the edge of her eyes, threatening to spill over at any moment. Teal'c remained silent, waiting for her to speak, to tell her why she had decided to stop by his room in the middle of the night. He studied her, noticing how her hands were wrapped tightly in clothes and how she was dressed: in a black tank top that clung to her and sport-like shorts. He had seen this apparel before, and he knew what she had been doing directly before coming to visit. She had been boxing.

Anyone who knew Nicole well knew that she only boxed when she was upset. And as rare as that emotion was for the woman, she had two places she could release that anger: here at the SGC where General O'Neill had set up an area for boxing and in Colonel Carter's basement where Nicole had set up her purchased punching bag. Teal'c assumed she had been using the former or she would not be standing in his presence at the moment.

After a long while, the woman took in a shaky breath and sat onto the edge of his bed gingerly. "Sorry for dropping by like this," she whispered as she harshly brushed away her tears.

Teal'c took the desk chair across from her and tilted his head slightly to one side in curiosity. "There is no need to apologize," he told her as he had told her boyfriend only a week earlier. "Do you need to talk, Nicole Leah?" It had only been a few months since the woman had decided she wanted to use her last name once again, but Teal'c had no problem adjusting to it.

She sighed loudly and nodded, rubbing her exposed arms gently. "I just had a visit from my sister," she informed her friend, her tone making it explicitly clear this was not something she considered to be a good thing and knowing her as he did, Teal'c was not surprised.

He nodded slightly and said simply, "Athena has upset you again."

"That's putting it mildly," Nicole replied before launching into her story.

_"That ought to do it," Samantha Carter told Nicole and smiled in the red head's direction. "Thanks for your help."_

_Closing the laptop before her, Nicole shrugged and began to organize the report that was emerging from the printer. "No problem," she replied, smiling back at the Lt. Colonel. "Anything else you need?"_

_Sam shook her head as she accepted the report from Nicole and tucked it securely in her arm. "No, I'll just take this to General Landry. He'll be pleased – it's very early." She smiled again and patted Nicole's arm gently. "Thanks to you. I'll be back."_

_Nicole nodded and turned to clean up the rest of the supplies from their experiment. Just as she heard the door shut tightly behind her, she heard a familiar sound: a Q flash. Rolling her eyes, she folded her arms over her chest and turned to face her sister. "Hello, Teeny."_

_"Hello, big sister," Teeny replied, a huge grin covering her face and her blue eyes sparkling with excitement. "I have good news."_

_"Oh yeah? Do tell."_

_"You're not going to believe it."_

_"Just tell me, Teens."_

_If it was possible, Teeny's smile grew even larger. "Okay, but promise me you won't jump on me when I'm finished."_

_"That should be easy enough."_

_"Fine then. Guess what human I've been granted the right and responsibility of making a Q again?"_

_"Um, me?"_

_"Yeah, isn't it great?"_

_Nicole nodded although her expression was not one of joy and replied with very little emotion, "That's nice. See you in three months."_

_Teeny shook her head violently, her blonde curls smacking her face as she did. "No, silly. You don't get it. I get to change you back **tonight**."_

_The red head froze in the middle of grabbing a microscope, her hand stopping in midair. "What did you say?"_

_"Isn't it wonderful? We get to start having adventures together again!"_

_"But I have another three months. The year isn't over yet, Teeny." Nicole's breathing became labored, and she leaned against the table for support. "I want my three months," she finished, her green eyes wide._

_Teeny's own blue eyes narrowed on her sister, her smiled disappearing behind the wave of confusion sweeping over the Q. "You . . . want . . . three months . . . here?" she asked incredulously. "But . . . you're human here. Why would you want to stay?"_

_Nicole collapsed into the nearest stool and dropped her face into her hands, unsure how to explain her feelings to her sister who had never really understood the desire to be human – and certainly never would. "I just do, okay?"_

_"It's that guy, isn't it?" Teeny asked, dropping into another stool beside Nicole's. "You fell in love again and are willing to give up everything for another guy? Didn't you learn your lesson the last time?"_

_"It's not just about Cameron, Teeny. I have other reasons, ones you wouldn't understand."_

_Teeny let out her breath in a huff and crossed her arms over her chest as her anger began to build. "Well, I have news for you, big sister. If you don't come back now, the elders will take back any offer to become a Q again. You say no to me now, you say no forever. Is that what you want? It won't just be three months anymore, it'll be for the rest of your life, however short that may be."_

_"Okay, okay, no need to threaten me, Teeny. I get it. I need to make a decision. But can't you give me some time to think it over?"_

_The blonde tapped her foot impatiently on one of the rungs on the bottom of the stool. "Fine, since I love you so much and respect whatever insanity it is you find yourself in, I will do something for you."_

_"And what's that?"_

_"I give you twenty-four hours as Q. You can't make a proper decision as a human. You don't even have all your memories. So, I'll make you a Q again and you can do what you want with it. In twenty-four hours, I'll come back and you can tell me your decision."_

_"And if I decide I want to be human for the rest of my life?"_

_Teeny sighed and hopped off the stool. "Then I'll give you your wish, even if I do think it's stupid."_

_"Thanks, Teens."_

_Teeny shook her head and snapped her fingers enveloping Nicole in a flash. In an instant, the red head was inundated with memories rushing into her head in conjunction with the familiar power once again filling her body._

"You are a Q once again?" Teal'c asked when Nicole had finished her story. She nodded mutely. "Then I do not understand. What is the cause of your frustration? Whatever your decision, your sister will honor it."

Nicole nodded, the tears spilling over onto her cheeks at last. "I know, Teal'c, but I'm not sure what I'm going to decide yet. Part of me really wants to stay here but then part of me really wants to hold on to the life I used to know. I don't know what to do."

"Have you spoken with Colonel Mitchell about this?"

She shook her head and replied softly, "I don't want him to know about this until I've made my decision. It's not fair to get him involved. I want to make this decision for me, not for him."

Sam sat at her table gazing at the laptop before her, lost in her own little world. Every now and then, she'd type a few things and wait for the screen to flash that she had a message in return before typing again. It had taken her a while to get used to instant messaging, but once she did, she enjoyed "talking" to her boyfriend in her downtime on the base, laughing at the things he typed to her from his office in Washington, D.C.

"Hey, Sam, have you seen Nicole?"

She glanced up to see the familiar face of Cameron Mitchell staring back at her. Checking the time, she realized her lunch break was over and quickly shut the computer before her and answered distractedly as she ran a hand through her hair, "Uh, no, Cameron, can't say that I have. I thought she spent the night with you."

It was his turn to arch his eyebrows in disbelief, not justifying that assumption with a verbal answer. "So you haven't seen her since yesterday?"

"No. Come to think of it, we were supposed to go out to celebrate finishing that report last night. When I came back from the general's office she was gone. I assumed she had gotten tired of waiting and went off to find you or something. But no, I haven't seen her since last night."

"That is because she spent the night in my room," the monotone voice of Teal'c surprised them as he answered their question, having entered the room unnoticed only a few moments before. "She awoke this morning and mentioned Colonel Carter's house before she flashed away."

This new information took a moment to settle on Cameron and Sam, but once it did, they both began talking at once. "_Flashed?_" Sam asked in a shocked tone, while Cameron focused on another aspect all together: "_She spent the night in your room?_"

"To answer you both," Teal'c began as he placed a folder on Colonel Carter's table. "Yes, she fell asleep in my bed after we finished our long conversation. I kelnorimed on the floor during the hours she slept. Yes, Colonel Carter, Nicole is once again a Q. But it is complicated."

"Complicated?" Sam and Cameron asked in unison.

"Yes. She has the next twenty-four hours to decide whether or not she wishes to stay that way."

"Why wouldn't she tell us about this?" Cameron asked, looking at Sam briefly. She shrugged before he turned back to the Jaffa.

"She does not wish to concern you with this decision. She feels it is one she needs to make on her own."

"But she talked to you," the slightly hurt boyfriend pointed out.

Teal'c bowed his head a little toward his team leader. "I believe she needed someone to talk to, and I was here." With that, he turned and left the Lt. Colonels once again alone in Sam's office.

They turned to look at each other in surprise before Cameron's eyes found the black table top and remarked softly, "Well, that was strange."

Sam nodded, her eyes glued to the door where Teal'c had disappeared. "But it gives you a chance to weigh in on Nicole's decision. I mean, now that Teal'c has given you some kind of heads-up."

Cameron shrugged. "But what am I supposed to say or do that would convince Nicole to stay?"

"Have you considered that if she decides to stay, she'll be giving up everything to be with you?"

"Of course I have. But what do I have to offer that would even slightly tip the scales in my favor?"

She flashed him a huge smile and replied in a knowing tone, "Oh, I'm sure we could think of something."

A few hours later, Sam and Cameron stepped inside her house quietly. They split up, each walking into individual rooms in search of Nicole, meeting in the front hall a few minutes later, neither one discovering anything. "Go outside," Sam told Cameron in a determined tone as she went in the direction of her basement.

She opened the door and began descending as she called out for her tenant, not really sure if she would get an answer. When she reached the bottom, she looked in all directions, stopping when she noticed something out of place: a door that was usually locked standing wide open. Her breath caught in her throat as she moved toward it.

Inside the little room, Nicole sat cross-legged on the once cluttered desk. She was staring at the piece of equipment that was very out of place in a suburban home. It was round and quite a bit smaller than the one that was at that moment situated safely under an inconspicuous mountain, but it was no doubt a Stargate.

Not unaware of her friend's approach, Nicole asked Sam in a low voice, "So how'd you manage to keep this in here? I'm sure General Hammond wouldn't have been happy to let it stay."

Sam smiled nervously and leaned against the door. "Yeah, I kind of had to lie about it."

"Really? Can't say I ever saw you lying to your superiors, but then again, maybe I shouldn't be surprised at anything you do, should I?"

The blonde shrugged as she crossed her arms over her chest. "Sorry to disappoint you, but I knew they'd never let me keep it here, and I just wanted to study it. They wanted me to send it to Area 51."

"So what did you send to Area 51?"

"Boxes of miscellaneous parts. They wanted me to take apart the mini-gate anyway."

Nicole laughed. "Nice," she replied, obviously approving of the deception. "Glad you had it in you."

"Why? Why is this so important to you?"

"Because . . . I need to do this if I'm going to live as a human. You have to know I can't stay on one planet for the rest of my life."

Sam's eyebrows burrowed in confusion. "You want to go through the Stargate?"

"Yeah, maybe be assigned to a team or something."

"But this one doesn't even work."

Nicole flashed her friend a smile and snapped her fingers, causing the small gate to flare to life, the swishing liquid that emerged narrowly missing the two women. "Never tell me something can't be done," the Q told Sam in a teasing tone. Hopping off the desk, she went to stand before the shimmering pool of light.

"Which gate did you dial?" Sam asked, moving closer, but ready to run at any moment, still not trusting the device completely.

"The Alpha Site," Nicole answered in a distracted way as she studied the event horizon. Smiling, she turned away from it and waved at Sam. "Wish me luck."

Sam shook her head in disbelief and replied softly, "Luck." And as she watched, Nicole took a step backward into the Stargate, disappearing without a trace.


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter Ten

That morning, hours before Nicole stepped through the Stargate . . .

There was always an eerie silence to space that Nicole somehow found oddly comforting. She knew others would probably find it strange how she could sit on the rings of Saturn, devoid of air (not that Qs need air), for hours on end without the slightest inkling of fear and yet the thought of travel through the Stargate chilled her to the bone. She shivered just thinking of it. This was different, she told herself as the felt the bright colors beneath her warm her skin. This was not some machine splitting apart her molecules to reassemble them on the other side. What if the tiny pieces of her got lost along the way and Teeny had to find them all and put her back together? True, as a Q she wouldn't die and wouldn't feel any pain in the process, but she would still prefer to have all of her molecules stay the way they were assembled.

She sighed and watched as a small meteor floated by, leaving in its wake a stream of brilliant white light, but the joy she used to find in the calm was curiously absent. There was a time when she would come out here to be alone or to think and make decisions. It was the very same spot she had made the choice to become human the first time – the time when Daniel had asked her to consider it. But that time was drastically different than this one. At that time she hadn't already been human for nine months before and this spot had soothed her enough to make the hard decision. The effect was obviously not the same this time.

After a few minutes, the Q had made up her mind to leave and was just about to do so when there appeared a bright light next to her. She turned, but instead of the short blonde Nicole had been expecting, a tall woman with long wavy brown hair stood quietly next to the red head, her arms folded as she glared defiantly down at Nicole.

The small red haired woman snorted as she got to her feet and dusted off her jeans, even though it was a useless gesture – dust from Saturn's rings could only be flashed off of clothing. Folding her arms, she raised her eyebrows and greeted the other woman distastefully, "To what do I owe the _pleasure_ of this visit, Susie Q?" It was completely obvious by her sarcastic tone that the unexpected arrival of the woman was unwelcome.

Susie Q, so named because her name had been Susanna so many millennia earlier, scoffed at the younger woman's question. After a few moments regarding the red head, the woman replied in a sickeningly sweet fabricated tone, "Is that any way to greet your stepmother, dearie?"

"You're not my stepmother. In order to still be my stepmother, you would have to be married to my stepfather. Last I checked, that hadn't happened."

"Oh do be realistic, Nicole. Just because I left him doesn't mean we've divorced."

"You left him eons ago, Susie Q. How do you think your son has managed without you? Oh, wait, you wouldn't know that because you haven't even been around to visit _him_!"

Susie Q's eyes flashed as she stepped closer to the shorter woman intimidating. "Don't you _dare_ judge me, you ungrateful little brat. You have no idea what it's like to be the mother of a Q."

Rolling her eyes, Nicole took a step back and changed the subject. "What do you want?"

Shrugging, the older woman answered with a smile finding its way onto her face, "I thought I could help you make your decision. I mean, I'm the only person you could trust to make an unbiased assessment of your situation."

"Unbiased?" Nicole laughed and replied in a cold voice, "You hate me, Susie Q. I hardly think your opinion would be unbiased."

"Hate you? Oh no, I don't hate you."

"But you want me gone, don't you? For me to become human again would be a dream come true for you, wouldn't it?"

"Perhaps, but I think you're already leaning toward leaving anyway. You just don't know how to tell your sister. Am I correct?"

Nicole sighed and nodded, looking back out toward the stars and blinking back a few tears. "I'm all she's got. If I leave her, how is she going to take it?"

"She'll be a better Q than ever, I think."

"What?" Nicole turned back to glare at Susie Q through narrowed eyes.

Susie Q laughed a cruel laugh and gave Nicole a look that exuded disbelief mixed with a little bit of pity. "Dear girl, don't you know your sister exhibits all the qualities your father himself holds so dear?"

"Stepfather," the red head corrected. "And what are you talking about?"

"Oh, you know, qualities like self-awareness and determination. Athena was the best specimen out of the four of you. Corin and Ariana ran away to get married and you . . . well, let's face it, girl, you've always been more human than the rest of them. It just took you longer to realize it."

"Is that meant to offend me? Because you know how much I respect humans for all they have accomplished with their limited abilities."

Susie Q shrugged. "Take it as you will. I only mean to tell you that you don't belong among the Q. My suggestion is that you take this opportunity to get out while you can. Athena will understand."

"How do I know I can trust you?"

"How would it benefit me to lie? Come on, Nicole, you know it's not in my nature to lie. The truth is far too much fun."

Nicole nodded glumly and turned once again to the twinkling stars. "That's true. You've always been one to tell the truth – hurtful as the truth may have been." She sighed and turned back to the older woman, but there was no sign of anyone else beside the red head. "You never were one to stick around either," Nicole muttered before she snapped her fingers and left in a flash of white light.

About five minutes after Nicole stepped through the Stargate . . .

Her blue eyes still full of surprise, the blonde Lt. Colonel sank into the chair beside the desk Nicole had been sitting on when Sam had found her. Sam didn't know whether to wait here for the Stargate to flare to life again or trudge upstairs to tell Cameron that his girlfriend had definitely left the building. Sensing that she should give it a little while longer, the woman stayed, feeling it would be premature to leave before she knew for sure Nicole would not be returning the same way she had left.

She didn't have long to wait. The Stargate once again flared to life, the stream emerging from the ring narrowly missing the woman in the room, and Nicole materialized out of the water-like event horizon with a smile that practically covered her entire face.

Her curls flew as she spun around in a circle with her arms spread wide, twirling from sheer delight. "That was amazing!" Stopping her spin, her green eyes finally came to rest on the blonde woman still sitting at the desk. "How could you let me _not_ try that?"

Sam smiled, finding her friend's enthusiasm infectious. "I always thought you'd figure it out eventually and try it yourself. If I pushed you, I knew you wouldn't ever do it."

"True," Nicole agreed before perching herself onto the edge of the desk and looking down at Sam. "So I think I've made my decision," the red head told her friend softly. "But I still want to talk to Cameron before I make it official."

"Well, that's convenient. He's in the backyard last I checked."

Nicole gave her friend a puzzled look. "The backyard?"

Sam nodded, laughing a little at Nicole's expression. "Yeah, we were looking for you."

Bursting out of the back door onto the porch, the excited red head caused the brown haired, blue eyed man in the yard to jump slightly before he turned around. She laughed loudly and hopped into his arms, the force of her jump pushing the man over onto the grass, their laughter reaching the ears of the woman of the house. Unnoticed by the two outside, Sam leaned against the open doorway and watched the as the happy scene unfolded before her.

"Cameron, I went through the Stargate!" Nicole shouted her good news cheerfully, pinning him to the ground with a suffocating hug.

Grinning from ear to ear, the man hugged her back and rolled them both over so that he was smiling down at her. Leaning down, he planted a sweet kiss on her mouth and ran a hand over her unruly hair. "You went through the Stargate?" he whispered in her ear before standing up and reaching a hand out to his disheveled girlfriend.

Nodding furiously, Nicole grasped his hand and allowed herself to be pulled up next to her boyfriend. "Yeah, and it was awesome!"

Cameron laughed and stroked her cheek lovingly. "I knew you would love it."

As they stood face to face and their eyes locked, Nicole suddenly began to think clearly and remembered there was still a decision to be made, one that she thought Cameron knew nothing about. Her smile slowly began to fade, and she took his hand as she led him to the back porch. Sam took this as her cue to shut the door and move her view to the window, shutting out most of the sound.

Cameron followed his girlfriend dutifully, his own smile disappearing into the recesses of his face. Both sitting on the back steps at the same time, they were silent for a moment before Nicole began, "Cameron, there's something I should tell you."

He nodded and squeezed her hand lightly. "Is this the part where you tell me your sister has offered you the chance to return home?"

Taken off guard a little, Nicole regarded her boyfriend in bewilderment, as if she thought he had somehow read her mind. Then realization struck, and she shook her head in amusement, chuckling softly. "Teal'c told you."

"Yeah . . . that's okay, right?"

Nodding, she replied quietly, very much aware that they were being watched from the house, "Yeah, saves me the trouble of telling you."

"In that case, I have a question for you."

She shook her head and laid a hand on his chest, physically telling him to stop talking. "No, don't ask me if I've decided what I want yet . . . I haven't quite made up my mind. But I am close, if that helps."

Rolling his blue eyes in mock disapproval, he smiled and played with a stray curl distractedly. "Not really . . . but that's not the question I wanted to ask you."

"Really?" Nicole asked, arching her eyebrows, very curious as to what her boyfriend was talking about. "Then by all means, ask away."

Without another word, Cameron dropped to the grass, one knee planted firmly in the green growth beneath them. Nicole's eyes grew to the size of saucers as she realized what he was doing and he reached into his pocket to pull out a small velvet box. Just as she began to shake her head in disbelief, he snapped it open, revealing a delicate platinum ring with a small diamond resting atop it.

Having difficulty breathing, Nicole closed her eyes and drew in several deep breaths before opening them again and asking slowly, "You're proposing to me . . ."

Cameron cleared his throat and replied, "Uh, yeah, that's what's happening . . . thought it might go over better than this." He closed the lid and went to put the box back in his pocket.

"Don't put it away!" Nicole said quickly, her hands reaching for the illusive object. "I want it!"

"You do?" Cameron replied, his face lighting up again in a huge smile, his eyes sparkling.

She nodded fervently, a huge smile spreading over her face at a remarkable pace. "It's just that, well, nobody's ever proposed to me before – I was a little, well, shocked."

"Understandably so. But you want the ring?"

Repeating her previous nod, she answered in an eager tone, "You know, in addition to a lot of other reasons," he smiled and nodded, and she went on, "I was seriously considering staying here because I know I won't find this kind of love anywhere else . . . and I decided I would rather live as a mortal for however short a time we have than spend eternity without you."

He leaned over and pulled her to him, kissing her soundly. "So you'll marry me?" He asked, knowing it was just a formality.

"Yes!" Nicole once again leapt into Cameron's arms, the result being the same as before – it sent both of them flying backward into the grass, only this time they didn't have as far to fall. When they landed, their lips were locked in a passionate kiss, from which they only paused long enough for Cameron to slip the ring onto Nicole's finger.

Inside the house, Sam smiled triumphantly at the couple in her yard, feeling a small amount of pride in her little participation in the event. After all, she did help Cameron pick out the ring earlier that day before they came back to the house to look for Nicole. Wrapping her arms around herself, she beamed at the red head when she finally turned to see the blonde watching in the window. The newly engaged woman waved her left hand at Sam, who merely nodded in response.

Just then, a pair of strong, comforting arms wrapped themselves around Sam's midsection, and she leaned into the embrace. Jack leaned down and kissed his girlfriend's neck gently, producing a shiver up and down her spine in response. When he raised his head and followed his girlfriend's line of vision, he noticed the couple outside, running about in the yard. Every now and then, one would catch the other, which would result in a lot of kissing.

"He proposed, didn't he?"

Sam nodded and replied softly, "Yeah."


End file.
